The Thrill, Basis Determined
by Ridiculous Mavis
Summary: Fun bookverse-inspired mildly-AU Shiz-era super-fluffy gonna-be-Gelphie episodes. With no trip to the Emerald City Elphie and Glinda are just enjoying their final year at uni with their friends and each other.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This came about when I stripped all the fun Shiz-based mega-fluff Gelphie bits from my previous story and decided to build them their own fic. It's not quite a story as such but they are connected more than one shots. Updates will be every few days, just short chapters. I'd love to hear your thoughts so please do review – I reply to them all.

Background: There was no trip to the Emerald City and everyone is just enjoying their final year at Shiz.

Finally: Consider yourself disclaimed.

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><p><strong>In which Elphaba waits for a train<strong>

Elphaba was practically writhing in her chair.

"Oh Elphaba stop it, you look as if someone had dumped a bucket of water on you." Nessa said sharply.

"I imagine there would be more steam, were that the case."

"What is it now, Miss Fidget?" Nanny asked her only slightly more seriously.

"She's just sulking."

"I want you to hurry up so we can leave." They were in Nessa's room. Still. And Elphaba was impatient.

"Now then," Nanny fussed. "The train isn't for two hours and it only takes twenty minutes to the station."

"You could _walk_ there and back twice in that time." Nessa considered that more seriously. "In fact, maybe you should."

Elphaba certainly had the energy for it. Going down the stairs of Crage Hall she was taking two steps forward and one back, racing away then returning to urge Nessa and Nanny down faster. She ploughed right in to the road to hail a carriage, it stopped less due to her arm waving and more so that it would not knock her down.

Finally they were at the station on the platform for Northern arrivals. Elphaba paced up and down.

"Elphaba stop stalking around so. You look quite demented." Nessa was of course sat calmly on a bench, Nanny holding up a lemonade to her.

The straw was white with a red spiral and Elphie decided to confiscate it for her own use once Nessa was finished. And so she did, diligently picking it apart and leaving a trail of wax and paper up and down the platform. Nessa just rolled her eyes.

"Sometimes I would like a holiday from you," she observed.

"Well maybe next summer you can go to Frottica and Glinda can stay here with me. Here, I mean. You know what I mean."

Elphaba's ebullience was beginning to give way to frustration. It did give way when she saw Boq, Crope and Tibbett heading down the platform.

"What in Oz?"

"Hullo!" Boq was all cheerfulness. "My, you are early."

"Elphaba would have had us camp out," Nessa added.

"That's not entirely true," Elphaba felt compelled to counter the accusation. "Can I not be concerned for Glinda's welfare? After a long train ride the last thing you would want is to arrive with no escort home. Though this is turning in to more of a committee than an escort."

"Well, we wanted to welcome Miss Glinda back in to our midst after the long, hideously boring summer holidays. A welcome now, and later, at the pub." Tibbett looked eager and the others nodded.

Elphaba was not impressed by that idea. "I had assumed a quieter night in." Then, as the more plausible motivation behind that she added "Due to all the travelling."

"Now Elphie, you shan't keep Glinda all to yourself," Crope scolded. "You two can catch up at your leisure. The rest of us are not lucky enough to be roomies with her."

"I don't see what they can possibly have to say to one another," Nessa sniffed. "They were writing to each other by return of post. Sheets and sheets." She turned on Elphaba. "And I know sometimes you sent two letters in a day, though they would only arrive together. You probably chronicled our lives in greater detail than she would have known were she actually here."

At turns Elphaba considered throwing them all on to the tracks. But that would only delay Glinda's return, so she did not. And that was the only reason.

Finally the train appeared. With an extreme advantage of height Elphaba scoured the train windows for sight of Glinda and was easily spotted by the blonde in return.

Glinda swung herself out on the step whilst the train was still coming to a standstill. Her heart skipped a little beat as she saw her friends and she waved. Elphie's face was a picture.

She had waved goodbye at the end of last term loving Elphie desperately and now, two months later, was waving hello desperately in love. It was different, but really, it wasn't different at all.

Hopping off the second the train did come to a stop she was almost immediately in excitable company.

"Why, everyone! How lovely of you!" She hugged Boq, Crope and Tibbett and did the same to Nessa and Nanny with the addition of a kiss on the cheek.

Elphaba was suddenly struck dumb as Glinda had disembarked and hung back despite her previous over-enthusiasm. She felt almost shy. Which was ridiculous, quite ridiculous. And yet here was Glinda now, stood in front of her, flushing away.

"Elphie..."

By Oz Elphaba had missed her.

"Hello," Elphaba said quietly and they hugged briefly, almost perfunctorily, their arms loose around each other.

A porter dumped Glinda's luggage. The boys swarmed to it but Elphaba, now released, knocked them out the way.

With Nessa and Nanny chatting away to Glinda they headed out to the main road. The gentlemen were in high spirits and it was some time before they all dispersed, nattering about their evening plans and news from the summer.

In their absence Glinda sought out Elphaba. "Oh Elphie," Glinda said as she turned, the first proper interaction they'd had since their – so Elphie felt – botched greeting. "My valise, are you quite alright?"

"This is a good deal more than an overnight bag, my dear," Elphaba felt compelled to point out as she lugged it along and up in to the carriage.

"You should have had the boys help you."

"And what could that collection of weaklings have done that I could not?"

"Nothing," Glinda agreed happily and sat exceedingly close to Elphie all the way back.

At Crage Hall Glinda parted from Nanny and Nessa in the corridor. "I shall have a quick nap and get washed up ready for tonight. See you later." She was desperate to get in to her room.

Glinda closed the door and stood back against it, smiling over at Elphaba. "Quite the welcome party."

"Everyone has missed you shockingly."

"I have missed everyone." It was true, Glinda had missed everyone. But she had more than missed Elphaba.

Glinda slid in to waiting arms and they held on to each other for much longer than they had at the train station and much more intimately. Her face was pressed in to Elphaba's neck, Elphie put a hand to her hair. She couldn't resist a quick kiss to Elphie's cheek and after a moments pause Elphaba pressed a slightly longer one to her forehead.

Running her hands up and down Elphie's arms Glinda took a step backward, taking Elphie's hands and holding them out.

"Let me look at you."

Elphaba smiled sheepishly under her gaze. "Have I grown? Shall you pat me on the head and tell me what a big girl I am now?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you had grown. But perhaps you've shrunk." Glinda gave her a quick poke in the ribs. "Has Nanny neglected you?"

"I've found myself with more energy to burn than usual," was Elphaba's explanation, whatever that were supposed to mean. "I'm afraid I have overly irritated Nessarose. You shall have to do some mediating for me."

"I have no doubt," Glinda said fondly.

"But you look extraordinarily well."

Glinda curtsied. "All that home cooking. You shall have to do some dieting for me."

"Never," Elphaba said solemnly. "You are quite perfect. You look radiant."

They looked at each other and found themselves hugging, again.

They shifted on to Glinda's bed, definitely not sat but not quite laying. Elphaba was on her back and had an arm around Glinda's shoulder, Glinda lay pressed up against her friend on her side, with an arm over Elphie's stomach: cuddling, for want of a more accurate word

After a while Elphaba spoke. "Was it horrible, my pretty?"

"Quite, yes. I missed you. That was horrible. I missed being here with you. Did you have a wonderful time?"

"I was short a rather essential ingredient to make it that. The silver lining was that I very much liked your letters."

Glinda squirmed. She had missed Elphaba so and the distance combined with absence had loosened something inside her. Some of the letters had been, she thought now in hindsight and back with Elphie, embarrassingly affectionate.

"And I yours. You do write excessively charmingly. Where I can actually read it."

Elphaba conceded that point. She nuzzled down in to Glinda's hair. "You smell different."

"Of home, I suppose. Don't worry, I'll be back to usual soon. Your Glinda. Of course Mother thinks I have let myself go horribly and I'm afraid you have taken the brunt of the blame for that."

"And you wonder why I did not want to come."

"I would never have made you. For your own sake I am glad you didn't. It was only me being selfish and wanting you there. But never mind, I'm home now."

Elphaba thought that were curious as the whole point was that Glinda had just been home all summer. Where was this other home? Shiz? Crage Hall? Their room?

Musing on that for a while she could feel Glinda relaxing and her breathing falling in to a sleepy pattern. "Are you going to get cleaned up?"

"Later," Glinda said drowsily. "I am quite happy here for now."

Glinda tightened her arm around Elphaba and presently Elphaba felt her twitch. "You're falling asleep," she said gently.

"Sleep with me, then," was Glinda's mumbled solution.

Elphaba didn't mind if she did. Nanny would come and get them when it was time to leave anyway. They could just be late. She wasn't going to move on anybody's account.

A funny thing had happened, over the summer. A warm little part of Elphie had crawled away and gone in to hiding. Now it was back and it wasn't little or warm at all. It was big. And it smouldered.


	2. Chapter 2

**In which Elphaba attempts to dream**

It was at the pub one evening a few weeks in to the new term and after the fifth bottle of wine for the table (not very coincidentally about the time the conversation tended to drift from worthy political and philosophical concerns to the more mundane) that the subject of dreaming came up. Everyone still _felt_ very philosophical, it was just that their arguments carried less weight and were considerably more slurred.

Avaric revealed he had dreamt of the perfect new shirt he was now intent on finding, truly believing it to exist in the physical realm. Nessa horrified rather than entertained the group with her latest near-apocalyptic visions of fire and brimstone, a tendency towards which only Elphaba had been aware of. Crope and Tibbett both claimed at least that their dreams were too saucy for the public though Elphaba teased them for dreaming of little more than shopping lists and just tarting it up in order to be interesting. Whenever Fiyero remembered dreams they were of home.

"I remember one last week," Glinda was saying. "I was shopping in the Emerald City even though I had stepped out of the dorm at Crage Hall. And my mother was there but then she left, or just turned in to Madame Morrible because then she was there too."

Poor Glinda was met with a selection of underwhelmed faces. Elphaba looked slightly more sympathetic but little did Glinda know she was just preoccupied figuring out her own response.

"Wow, Miss Glinda, that was... scintillating..." Crope scraped the barrel of humour.

"I don't think dreams have to be scintillating, they are a psychological tool for dealing with our everyday lives." Glinda considered, too late, that this statement may have betrayed a prior interest in the subject.

It also prompted a disjointed rabble of opinion and conjecture to break out amongst the group.

Outnumbered Glinda silently beseeched with widening eyes for Elphaba to help her, but Elphaba seemed determined to stay out of it.

"Elphie! What do you think?" Glinda had to resort to a direct plea.

Appearing to steel herself to enter the fray Elphaba said "I don't know. I don't dream."

Despite the gallant rescue Glinda was the first to turn on her. "You do, everyone does. You just don't remember them."

"I assure you, Miss Glinda." Elphaba said very deliberately. "I do not dream."

"You know they say psychopaths don't dream. Or rather, that Glinda is correct and they do dream but their dreams are so terrible they cannot be remembered." Tibbett offered helpfully.

Elphaba did not find it helpful. "I'm sorry, Master Tibbett, are you implying that I am a psychopath? I would have thought that were a dangerous thing to say... to a psychopath."

Glinda had not been entirely – or at all – truthful in the subject matter and frequency of her dreams, not feeling it necessary to inform the group – and one particular person – of the dominance of her subconscious hours by one Elphaba Thropp.

Last night, for instance, Glinda had a delightful encounter with Elphaba in a flower meadow.

Regularly she returned to Caprice in the Pines at Lake Chorge, her first summer at Shiz. It pulled her there with the gently tugging reminder that this is where things really started to change. In her dreams she could save herself well over a year and counting of time and just barrel straight in to Elphaba as she appeared by the lake house, knocking her down with kisses.

If not there then it were somewhere else, some time else connected with Elphaba. The day they first met, the day they first really spoke, the closeness they had built. That damn orange hat where in her dreams Elphie's reflection walked through the window and held her. Or some future time, a tantalising glimpse of happiness and contentment in Elphie's arms.

None of this bothered Glinda, not any more. At first, yes, it had. These dreams had been one of the first manifestations of her growing interest in Elphie, as friends and then as something more. They had been unwelcome in their surprise and intensity. However now she was more than happy to find that after dedicating all her waking hours to the quiet and covert study and adoration of Elphaba this would continue with such delightful homework. She was more than happy to be continually surrounded. Ridiculously more than happy.

So prompted by entirely selfish motivations Glinda decided to make Elphaba's dreamscape a project. The girl needed an injection of imagination and Glinda really needed to know what went on in that head after hours.

Glinda installed a notebook on Elphaba's bedside table that she was to write her dreams in immediately as she woke so as to better remember them. Elphaba didn't, because as she kept pointing out, she had no dreams to remember.

Glinda took to randomly waking Elphaba throughout the night, to see if she could be disturbed mid-dream. She could not and Elphaba's protests that this was not a failing of Glinda's but because she did not dream fell on deaf ears.

Glinda fed Elphaba cheese before bedtime to provoke nightmares that did not come. Elphaba put this down to the fact that someone who _does not dream_ cannot therefore have nightmares.

Glinda installed a gramophone in their room in strict disobedience of Hall rules and played music all night long to prompt Elphaba's subconscious. Unsurprisingly, Elphaba did not dream.

"As you fall asleep you should try -" Glinda was cut off by Elphaba's groan.

"Please, Lurline, Glinda, enough. I do not dream. I have had enough of being Test Subject Thropp. You're not making me dream, you're just disturbing my rest."

Glinda narrowed her eyes at her friend, she was not convinced. "You should try," she continued firmly, "telling yourself a story or acting a play as you fall asleep. To jump-start it. Maybe when you do fall asleep it will continue."

"And what do you suggest I try to dream about? You know I have very little imagination."

"I don't think that matters. Just... replay the day or think about something nice."

That seemed to catch Elphie's attention. "If I could dream I should like a raunchy one, I understand those to be quite fun. Be a darling and put on that terribly short and frilly nightgown of yours, that should put me on the right track. Even if I don't dream I'll have a pleasant few minutes before I drop off." Elphaba grinned wickedly.

Glinda just gave a disapproving look that couldn't quite keep out a smile. She did not deign such blatant naughtiness with a reply, mostly because she wasn't sure she could muster her voice to more than a squeak.

Talk of dreams was suspended for some time, for all parties to recover their modesty.

In the opposite of the intended effect Glinda started having dreams about herself in short and frilly nightgowns and Elphaba in no nightgown at all.

One morning the next week Elphaba woke to find Glinda sat on her bed staring intently at her. "Gracious, Glinda!" She exclaimed in shock. "What on earth are you doing? Is something wrong?" Her mind swung frantically to concern.

"No," Glinda said, a puzzled little look on her face. "I've just been watching you sleep."

Elphaba propped herself up on an elbow. "Not this again. I thought we had let this go?"

"The thing is, when you sleep you go through sleep cycles."

Elphaba gave Glinda a cynical look.

"Yes, I have been to the library, contain your surprise. And one of these cycles is the dream cycle. You know REM? Rapid eye movement? You don't do it."

"Because I don't dream."

"Yes," Glinda said bluntly, not quite believing it.

Elphaba reached behind her to grasp something and then hit Glinda square on the head with her pillow. "I told you that weeks ago!"


	3. Chapter 3

**In which Glinda calls Elphaba a flirt**

Arriving in the cafe by the library Glinda scanned the room for any of her friends. She had not had the best of days and was only becoming more vexed as she lurked in the doorway peering around.

"Glinda!" Boq called, beckoning her over. "I must say you look quite lovely today. Is that a new dress?"

"No," Glinda flushed. "It's not and there is no intention to look anything." She sat down quickly. It was still warm out considering it was well in to autumn, that was the only reason for this particular dress. Fashion had given way to functionality some time ago.

Elphaba was here, and Boq obviously, and Glinda hoped someone else would come soon to dilute the attention. Boq was clearly bored as Elphie had her face in a paper.

"Well you do. You're being far too modest. Elphaba," he made a vain appeal. "Is she not too modest?"

"Yes indeed," Elphie said ponderously, flicking through the pages of her newspaper. "Our Glinda is quite the loveliest thing in all creation."

Elphie's compliments were always so offhand or prompted or tongue in cheek that Glinda could hardly call them compliments. Despite that they never failed to make her giddy and no more so than now when, unseen to Boq, Elphie finally raised her eyes from the newspaper and gave Glinda a mischievous wink.

Shortly Avaric arrived with Crope, then Fiyero. Glinda began to feel outnumbered and claustrophobic. She poked Elphaba to get her attention.

"Where is Nessa?"

"I'm sure I don't know. Wherever she is Nanny will be faithfully propping her up. No doubt she will be along if she fancies it." Elphie hadn't looked back up since the wink, she just snorted at something she read and muttered inaudibly.

"Just you girls?" Avaric noted.

"It would seem so," Elphaba agreed humourlessly, finally folding up her paper. "So behave yourselves. I would hate to have to run squealing back to the dorms clutching at my skirts."

"I cannot quite envisage a squeal, Elphaba." Avaric's eyebrow took up a pose on his forehead.

"From me or in general? If in general, please, pass me that knife and come over here. I shall enlighten you."

"I did mean from you."

"Well that I will not provide. Not for your or anyone else's amusement."

"Not even if I am appallingly rude and suggestive?"

"No. My earlier comment was a lie. If you are any of those things to Glinda or myself it will be you squealing. We are not the Misses Pfannee and Shenshen, thank you very much."

Avaric was clearly enjoying himself. "How is it that you have both managed to keep yourselves so free of suitors, despite so much beauty and intrigue? That's not directed at one or the other, both equally."

"Now this is a brave man," Crope laughed. "Though both Glinda and Elphaba are indeed beautiful and intriguing," he added, raising his glass a little.

Elphaba bristled. "Nonsense," she scoffed. "As if that were in any way relevant. My studies come first and then you horrible lot taking up all my time. There's no room for anything else and nor do I want there to be." She wanted to speak for them both but was well aware she had absolutely no right to.

"As Elphaba said." That caught Elphie out slightly. Glinda wanted her to speak for both of them. Under the table she felt her hand being squeezed.

Elphaba glanced up at Glinda, who she noticed for the first time looked rather out of sorts. She frowned a little in a silent enquiry and Glinda shook her head, her lips tight and her eyes wandering over to the door.

Action was immediate. "And yet despite this fascinating inquisition in to our private lives," Elphaba said as she stood, "Miss Glinda and I shall be leaving you."

"But Elphie! You've only just got here!" Boq objected.

"I have finished my newspaper. My work here is done." She kept a hold on Glinda's hand as the other girl stood up. "Enjoy your evening, gentlemen."

Giving them a little wave Glinda followed Elphaba out.

"Are you alright?" Elphie asked her, worried.

"Sorry, yes. I just felt a little strange as soon as I got in there." Glinda took Elphie's arm and they began a slow walk back to Crage Hall.

"Not that I am sad to be leaving," Elphaba assured her. "Why must the devils be obsessed with these romantic inclinations all the time?

"Perhaps they are just curious. You do have a certain way with you Elphie. People can't help being attracted to that." Glinda felt much more cheerful now, in the fresh air and with Elphaba all to herself.

"A 'way'? Pray, tell, what is this 'way'?" And please, Elphaba added in her mind, tell me which people. Person, preferably.

"You're such a terrible flirt. And by terrible I mean indiscriminate and constant, not bad." Glinda was still puzzling on her clarification as the green on Elphie turned slightly grey and she stopped walking.

"Flirt? Me?"

"Yes you, don't act so surprised Elphaba. It's intellectual and sparring, but maybe that's what makes it all the more effective than just the usual simpering flirtations of other girls."

Elphie looked astonished which amused Glinda enormously. "Why Miss Elphaba what I wouldn't give for a feather. I believe I could actually knock you down."

Elphaba kept a close eye out for this so-called flirting the next time they were with their friends.

It was everywhere, apparently.

The weather was still mild and they sat on various cloaks and coats in a far corner of the park by the canal, trapped in between the high wall covered in ivy and the bushes, hiding the fact Elphaba and Glinda were off campus alone and in the company of young men no less. Additionally there were altogether too many bottles of beer in evidence for that time in the afternoon.

Deciding just to continue as normal Elphaba found that arguing with Avaric provoked many knowingly raised eyebrows from Glinda sat just off from her side.

"What?" Elphaba mouthed over at her.

Glinda just raised her eyebrows knowingly again. She had also realised this was a rather excellent scheme for just watching Elphie. She could pretend it were for some nobler research purpose whereas it was in fact quite self serving.

Right now Elphaba's lips were twitching in trying not to smile at some silliness Crope and Tibbett were perpetrating. Glinda herself tried not to smile, but couldn't. It spread across her face, warm and soft. And it wasn't at those two or anyone, just at Elphaba sat there trying not to laugh. As adorable as her friend did look Glinda wished she would just laugh as that was a sight to behold.

Later Elphie was scolding Crope with definite undertones of lewdness and rudeness so that Glinda's eyebrows were working overtime.

As the afternoon wore on though Elphie wound down, she seemed quite happy to let the boys get on with their own banter and their own flirtation.

Glinda sat against the wall with her legs out and Elphaba curled in her lap with her head on her arms in her usual foetal position. Glinda's hand ran absent mindedly up and down Elphie's back. She was feeling altogether too relaxed and likely to fall asleep if this continued, even without having had anything to drink. Besides, she had a class. She tapped Elphie on the head as a signal to sit up, which she did obediently.

"I was enjoying that," was her mild objection.

"I have to get up," Glinda said. "Let me past."

Elphaba let Glinda squeeze past her but not without bestowing a quick tap on her behind.

"That's not flirting," Glinda murmured as she reached a safe arms distance away. "That's tantamount to molestation."

"Slap me and call me a cad then."

"You _are_ a cad."

"Now who's flirting?"

Glinda had to admit she had been caught out there. "You bring out the worst in me."

"Or the best."

"Stop it," Glinda objected primly but the objection was overruled by the grin on her face.

Then, louder, to everyone else, "I've got to go, I have an evening seminar."

Elphaba's upset showed she had forgotten that fact. "And leave me here with these barbarians? What would Nanny say?"

The boys raised their glasses to that.

"You're practically on campus anyway. It's never bothered you before."

"What if they kidnap me and sell me to a travelling freak show for beer money?" That prompted an interesting question. "Would you come with me, my pretty?"

"Of course I would. I would grow a beard or some such."

"You could be the ringmaster, the tamer of the green beast. And fight me with a chair." Elphaba seemed quite taken with that idea.

Glinda left her to it but blew a cheeky kiss as she skipped away, which Elphaba mimed catching with an amused smile.

"What _is_ going on with you two?" Boq's eyebrows were just about in his hair.

"Oh, just a game we're playing. Glinda seems to think I flirt with people." Elphaba said it expecting them to agree as to the nonsensical nature of this. Shockingly there was a general consensus of nodding of heads. Then things got even more shocking.

Avaric laughed. "Glinda telling you off about flirting? And yet _you_ are the green one."

Elphaba couldn't begin to even think what he could mean.

"She should know." Boq pointed out, literally, but pointing not quite at Elphaba, sort of over her shoulder and squinting with the effort. "The only person... you flirt with... is her."

Elphie was incredibly glad Glinda was not here for this nonsense. And also that she did not have a feather, for she was certainly liable to be knocked down.

"And me," Avaric added with a certain amount of pride. "And... well... everyone. But mostly Glinda."

She could not believe she was hearing this. Obviously her surprise was palpable, and easily misinterpreted.

"Elphaba needs a cold shower!" Avaric mocked. "Or at least something less deadly."

Elphie left, mumbling furious expletives. She would catch Glinda up and help her over the vegetable garden wall without a single even slightly risqué comment, she vowed.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Lovely reviewers, you are wonderful and hilarious. Thank you so much. And thanks to everyone for reading. Does one need to warn for excessive consumption of alcohol in a chapter? Well, guess what: there's excessive consumption of alcohol in this chapter. But it's drunkenness in the nicest possible way.

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><p><strong>In which Elphaba is drunk<strong>

It was a Saturday evening not long before the Winter Break. The holiday was close enough to look forward to, exams far enough away to be ignored. It was getting cold outside and the pub seemed the most sensible place for everyone to be.

Avaric approached the table with a tray of whiskey shots. He downed two in quick succession, in addition to the pint and a half of beer sat growing warm on the table.

"You're going to regret that tomorrow morning," Fiyero warned him gently.

Boq doubted that. "Avaric doesn't regret anything the next morning."

"Aw, Boq, is that what he told you? The question is, did you regret him?" That got Crope a shove from Boq but he only succeeded in spilling Crope's beer on his own trousers.

"I come prepared!" Avaric brandished a bottle of pills. "_Wherever_ I wake up tomorrow morning one of these will set me right."

Crope took the bottle to examine it. "For best results dissolve in water," he read from the label. "Look, Elphie, that's like you."

"Seems like cheating to me. If every action has an equal and opposite reaction you should take the hangovers with the inebriation." Elphaba ignored the barb and delivered her edict.

"Clearly you have never suffered a hangover." Boq felt he'd had more than his fair share.

"No, because I have never suffered the cause."

"Are you telling me you've never been drunk?" Avaric was incredulous.

"And why should that so surprise you? If I had you would almost certainly have seen. Most of our more debauched evenings are at your instigation. Although maybe you think you would not have remembered, being as you are generally so drunk yourself. I certainly did not carouse in pubs before arriving at Shiz."

"Indeed not," Nessa put in. "You would have been too young – and to think of a minister's daughter doing such a thing."

"And the beer tasted of mud."

"Oh Elphaba," Nessa put in again. "You're just making that up."

"Why does everyone start their conversations with me by using 'Oh Elphaba'? It's getting so that I think it is actually my real name: Oelphaba."

"Oh El -" Glinda cut herself short at Elphaba's incredulous stare. "Maybe you have a point."

"But you do drink?" The question was pointless as it was always observed that she did and she was currently.

"There is a difference between drinking and being drunk. Part of it is choice, yes. But I think part is physiology. I seem to be able to drink a great deal with no ill effect. 'Getting drunk' does not seem financially viable either, the quantity it would apparently take."

Glinda took this opportunity to hiccup, a feature that though delightful on her friend Elphie did not feel would be very becoming on herself. Another reason to stay away.

"Elphie?" Glinda began, with a hopeful tone.

"Glinda..." Elphie prompted her.

"Does it bother you though if I get drunk?"

"And why should it do that?"

An entire bottle of wine had found its way in front of Glinda.

Elphie eyed it suspiciously. "Although if you drink all that you'll be finding your own way home."

Glinda was petulant. "You would abandon me?"

"Never. You know I never would."

"Stop teasing me then." Glinda huddled closer as if to ensure she would not be abandoned.

When it eventually came time to leave Glinda was still so close she was actually inside Elphie's cloak. Under the cloak they walked down the road averaging a straight line but never actually _in_ a straight line, despite Elphie's arm around Glinda's waist. They giggled and whispered like children, scuttling along behind Nessa and Nanny.

Outside their room Elphaba indelicately leant Glinda against the wall in order to unlock their door. Glinda had been studying her friend as intently as was possible through blurred vision. When Elphie turned round to her Glinda's own arms were round Elphie's waist. Their faces were thrillingly close and Elphie's eyes grew wide at the intention that must have been writ large on Glinda's features.

"Hello," Elphie said though, perfectly calmly. "How are you, my little drunkard?"

The door swung open and Elphie steered her in by her shoulders.

Glinda made a noise suspiciously close to a whimper.

"Can you get yourself undressed?"

Slightly less co-ordinated than usual Glinda gave it her best shot but ended up needing Elphaba's help to wrestle her dress off. She decided to cut her losses and got in to bed still in her petticoat.

Elphie was in the wash room and came out in her night gown, pulling back the blankets on her own bed.

"Aren't you coming in?" A tentative new arrangement of only occupying one bed at a time had begun to emerge. Still in its infancy Glinda did not want to cause any potentially fatal setbacks.

Elphaba wanted to invoke a proviso of 'I will if you behave yourself' but did not want to draw attention to the possibility of misbehaviour. So she just capitulated instead. At least from the same bed she could poke Glinda when she began drunkenly snoring, as opposed to having to trek across the room to do so.

Laid in bed with Glinda curled up next to her Elphie mulled over the evening and began to formulate a few theories. Now all she had to do was test them.

So it was that the next time everyone was met in the pub and the conditions seemed favourable Elphie covertly ordered and consumed a quite spectacular amount of alcohol.

Having decided that spirits were probably the most efficient way to achieve her goal as well as being quick and easy to imbibe she went to use the facilities on several occasions, surreptitiously stopping at the bar for half a dozen shots at a time.

She had intended to keep count of the number of shots but she soon discovered that numeracy was one of the first faculties to be eroded by alcohol. She realised she should have been more thorough and brought a notebook or some such, but that would likely draw too much attention. She picked her way carefully back to the table, noticing it was taking a bit more concentration than usual.

Glinda observed her friend with a critical eye. If she did not know better she would have said that Elphaba was drunk. And yet the same glass of wine had been sat in front of her the whole night.

"Where do you keep sneaking off to?"

"Nowhere!" Elphaba's rebuttal was perhaps a little over eager.

Narrowing her eyes Glinda was well aware something was going on. "Have you been drinking?"

Elphaba pointed at the wine glass in front of her.

"Not just that. Obviously. Has Avaric been buying you shots?"

That seemed to go down as something of an outrage. "As if I would let him – or anyone – or _him_ ply me with alcohol. Anyway, I'm -" Elphie was also getting a little loud and little slurred.

Glinda cut her off. "Yes, alright, dear."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Glinda, what?"

"Nothing."

"As the future Eminence of Munchkinland I demand that you -"

"I'm Gillikinese and though I respect the position and you yourself even as Eminence you would have no particular authority over me."

"Well as your friend, then. What?"

"Elphie, I hate to have to tell you this... but you're drunk." Glinda herself was as sober she had ever been, not quite having gotten over the previous time. So she felt well qualified to judge.

"Am I? Really?" Elphie seemed almost pleased with herself. "I feel... exuberant."

Trust Elphaba to be a thesaurus even when inebriated. "That's nice. That's nice drunk. Maybe you should leave it here."

"Won't I start sobering up?"

"Well, eventually, yes. It's not permanent."

Elphaba gave her a lopsided look that made her seem even more drunk. And even more adorable.

"Maybe I should keep going. Just level it out."

"Are you doing this on purpose? Elphie? Is this deliberate?"

"It was an experiment."

"Well it's not exactly laboratory conditions now, is it? Who else is involved in this experiment?"

"No-one?"

"Mm," Glinda was far from convinced. She glanced over at the boys, looking for guilty faces to implicate in this scheme but no-one else seemed to be paying attention.

Elphaba was examining her hands, turning them over to look at the palms, then back over, then back to palms again, as though looking for something. "I don't feel that different. I don't feel like I would... do anything too out of the ordinary."

"That'll come," Glinda noted wryly. "You'll be streaking through Railway Square before you know it."

"That's not a compulsory element of intoxication, that's just Crope and Tibbett." Clearly Elphie had lost none of her coherency.

"You're not really supposed to get that drunk. I've never been that drunk. Not so drunk that I didn't know what I was doing... Elphie? What is your hypothesis here?"

"Just... curiosity..." Elphie might be in control of her senses but she didn't quite trust herself to obfuscate the question with the same level of skill she normally possessed.

Glinda knew that wasn't true. Somewhere back in their room in a detailed report Elphaba would have a whole plan laid out about this. The question to be investigated: could Glinda's actions when tipsy be trusted? Glinda felt sad suddenly and put her hand on Elphie's shoulder, pushing it ever so slightly up her neck so that her thumb grazed against skin.

"You're silly," she told Elphie.

She wasn't sure whether Elphie had understood her meaning or not. "I know," she said. "But it's an experience anyway."

The experiment did continue with a few more shots over the next hour, winding down gently. Glinda was keeping a close eye on the situation.

Elphaba was gloriously, wonderfully drunk. She could feel one side of her face tingling and the world seemed more concentrated somehow. The unnecessary parts faded in to the background and the important parts stood out in sharp relief, seeming closer than they really were.

Chief amongst those important parts was Glinda. In a highly unnecessary move Elphaba reached out and brushed some hair from Glinda's face, tucking it behind her ear, hand lingering to cup Glinda's cheek. Glinda tilted her head in to it and smiled.

Elphie's hypothesis was disproved. Being drunk did not make her want to do these things. It just made the things she already wanted to do harder to resist.

"Glinda?" There was the slightest hint of a whine in Elphie's voice.

"Elphie..." Glinda replied solemnly.

"Can we go home please?" It had all been very instructive. But she was sleepy now and had her results to review.

"Yes. And unlike _your_ charming self I have no intention of even threatening to leave you here."

Everyone staggered to their feet, Nanny arranging Nessa and Glinda arranging Elphie.

Glinda held Elphaba's arm around her own shoulders, providing some sort of support and hoping it would be sufficient.

"I'm not going to be able to carry you, you know. Even if you are skinny as a whippet you're still too big for me."

"Ironic, then, that is I who am a Munchkinlander, and not you."

"You know I'm not actually short," Glinda felt it important to make clear. "Only in comparison to you, who happens to be very tall. I am a perfectly average height."

"Glinda my dearest," said Elphie in her best grandiose and complimentary voice, "Nothing about you is average."

Glinda couldn't help but smile even as she correctly observed "And nothing about you, Miss Thropp, is sober."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: At this point I should probably also disclaim myself on Hand aufs Herz. I am currently obsessed so this is taking on a very Hand aufs Herz-ian quality. As such this chapter is dedicated to Lucy Scherer's perfect, perfect face. She's a comedy genius.

* * *

><p><strong>In which Elphaba is in a bad mood<strong>

Glinda had been next door with Nessa until late and now she slipped in to her room, looking forward to this quiet slice of night time with Elphaba. They had developed something of a routine.

Elphaba was sat on her bed with a sheaf of papers and a book. She had already changed in to her night gown, which was a blow to Glinda, but she would cope. There had been plenty of views of that bare back, muscles rippling gently as the nightgown slid slowly down... but Glinda was in danger of coming over all inappropriate.

She advanced on the bed and without looking at her Elphie reached up to take her hand and gave it a little kiss on the knuckles before pulling Glinda down next to her. Glinda kissed her temple.

"Nessa alright?"

"Mm, course. You getting on?"

"Nearly."

Glinda curled up next to her. Her own work was more or less up to date and things hadn't got quite back to full speed after the holiday, so that she didn't feel the need to be doing anything other than basking in Elphie's presence.

Often they would read from the same book, Elphaba waiting until Glinda nodded to turn the page. Or they would sit with their arms around each other reading their own books but needing the other to turn the page for them.

Now Glinda took the book from Elphie to give her more room to take notes. She started reading even though it was nothing she needed to know and she turned the page when Elphie nudged her. She wound Elphie's hair around her finger as she had watched Elphie do many times, but adding the element of running it over her lip.

"Done!" Elphie announced, with a flourish of her pen. "Are you getting changed? I'll just have a quick look over the next chapter."

Nodding Glinda stretched herself out, arching her back and getting a little tickle on her ribs from Elphie. She undressed quickly and shimmied in to her nightdress. A quick glance over her shoulder sent Elphie's eyes skittering guiltily back to her open book and Glinda smiled to herself.

Elphie wriggled herself under the blankets and held them open for Glinda to slip in. _That_ had been a very welcome development from last term, born out of them just accidentally – or not so accidentally, but nothing anyone could prove – falling asleep on the same bed together so many times that it just seemed sensible. It was also a very effective antidote to the winter chill. Even after the very first time Glinda had known she would never be able to sleep in any other way ever again.

"Just one minute more," Elphie said in answer to the question that hadn't been asked.

But Glinda fell asleep before that very long minute had expired. She woke about an hour later, uncomfortable and with the light still on. Elphaba was asleep. Glinda removed the book from clutching hands and leant over to turn down the lamp but was completely unable to negotiate Elphaba in to a more comfortable position.

After the next morning's classes they sat at lunch with Nessa and Nanny in the buttery, Elphie grinding pepper over Nessa's soup and trying not to sneeze.

"Did you get all your work done?" Nessa enquired, almost checking up on the reason for Elphaba's absence last night.

"Not really. Close enough." Elphaba seemed uncomfortable at the question and shrugged off a vague answer.

"You did fine," Glinda corrected. "If anything you are working too hard and wearing yourself out."

"I'm not wearing myself out at all," Elphie objected without making eye contact.

Glinda snorted. "You fell fast asleep with the book still open last night, don't try to deny it. And you slept straight through like a baby."

"Why does one say that, about babies?" Elphaba was examining the salt shaker and steering the conversation off course. "I thought they had a reputation for crying all night?"

"Ah well," Nanny began, pausing the spoon on its way to Nessa's mouth, at which the younger Thropp looked indignant. "You used to -"

"Thank you Nanny!" Elphaba cut in, her tone shrill, her attention caught. "It's not necessary to begin reminiscing. I was talking about the little brats in general, not this little brat in particular."

"Little monster you were," Nanny grumbled.

"And that's not an exaggeration," Elphaba pointed out to Glinda.

Glinda lit up in anticipation. "Oh Nanny, please, do tell us some terribly embarrassing stories about Elphaba. And Nessa."

Nessa wrinkled her nose. "Thank you for the afterthought, Glinda. But like Elphie I have no desire to hear such stories, about myself or indeed herself."

At being denied her fun Glinda scowled.

"You do pull the funniest faces," Elphie said, rather patronisingly for Glinda's taste.

"Oh, funny, is it?" She shot back.

Elphie actually paused and looked at her for a while. "Okay, strike that. Adorable. And just a tiny bit scary."

They ate while Nanny enquired as to their plans for the rest of the day.

"I need to go and do battle with the dunderheads at Three Queens about getting in to the library. I'm not sneaking about any more, I haven't got the time."

"You are not going over to Three Queens College on your own." Nanny said, leaving no room for disagreement.

No room for anyone other than Elphaba. "Nonsense, Nanny. It is still part of the university and so technically on campus."

"It is a boys college," Nessa observed. "What if someone saw you? You would be assumed to be having a secret assignation."

"Then _someone_ obviously does not know me very well," Elphie snapped, worrying Glinda a little.

In the end of course the whole entourage did end up at the Three Queens library.

With Nanny and Nessa sat in the foyer Glinda accompanied Elphaba in to the office.

In the space of abut five minutes Elphie managed to insult the principal of the college, the Vice Chancellor of the whole university and quite possibly the Wizard. Glinda wasn't sure, she couldn't quite keep up.

Glinda simply watched, curious to see how Elphaba was going to extricate herself from this particular mess, her eyebrows quirking.

"A little help?" Elphaba hissed in an aside.

"Oh, no, you seem to be coping admirably on your own," Glinda deferred.

Elphie fumbled a bit further until Glinda felt she really must intervene.

"Please excuse her," Glinda said apologetically. "She has many skills but she's not very socially adept."

"That is a very polite way of putting it," the clerk said. "Can she fill in forms?"

"Now wait just a -" Elphie began.

Glinda fixed the bad girl with a very specific look which very effectively sealed those green lips against any further contribution.

"We'll take the forms," Glinda said, folding them up and putting them in Elphie's satchel, Elphie being more or less paralysed with rage. She steered Elphie back outside where Nessa and Nanny only had to glance at them to know just to silently get up and leave.

Once outside Glinda pulled Elphie in to a hug, rubbing her stiff back and whispering "Foolish girl" until Elphie started to relax. Nessa and Nanny left her to her ministrations.

"I hate all this – this bureaucracy and... and no-one saying what they are really thinking."

"Yet you on the other hand always say what you think."

"Actually, you'll find I very rarely do." But Elphie had a little smile now and seemed to be coming around. She took Glinda's hand and started walking.

That information came as something of a surprise to Glinda as she did a quick double step to catch up, their hands stretching between them but never letting go.

On a slightly related tack she broached their earlier subject. "Why won't you let Nanny tell me any baby Elphie stories? Anyone would think you had popped in to being at seventeen. Did you? I almost wouldn't be surprised."

That made Elphie laugh. "You think I didn't exist before I met you? You might almost be right."

Glinda blushed. That was not what she had meant at all. She had her own twist on that feeling.

Though amused Elphie suspected that stories of near infanticide were not what Glinda was looking for. "Sometimes I'm surprised Nessa and Shell even exist – that my parents weren't put off the whole sorry business of procreation by me. But, I suppose, when a man and a woman love each other very much... these things just happen."

Glinda had her own twist on that too. "Sometimes I am surprised _I_ even exist."

"Really? Why?"

"Well... when a man and a woman _don't_ love each other very much..."

"Ah."

"Yes. 'Ah' indeed. "

"Well I for one am eternally grateful that you do." Elphie pulled Glinda closer as they walked.

Despite that Elphaba returned to her mood when they entered a cafe in town where some of the others had already occupied a few tables.

"I'm leaving," Elphie flung herself in to an chair. "I'm going to find the most horrendous and scandalous rule to break and get myself expelled. I don't care."

Glinda had been listening to variations on this theme all day. Their friends had not.

"Oh Elphie," Boq lectured her. "How can I ever know whether you are being serious or not?"

"The thing about Miss Elphaba is that she is nothing anyone else says she is," Glinda observed using exactly the same offhand tone Elphie always did and idly playing with a coaster rather than looking up. "But then, nor is she anything she says she is either."

Her impression concluded she looked up, smiling and got a round of applause. From everyone except Elphie who was looking at her with her lips pursed in a wry little grin.

"Very clever," Elphie murmured. "Very clever, my sweet."

That amusement did not last very long either. Pfannee, Shenshen and Milla entered followed by Ama Vimp with enough bags and packages that a wheelbarrow would have come in useful.

"Do you like my new dress?" Pfannee presented herself.

It was quite possibly the most terrifying dress Glinda had ever seen.

"Isn't it excellent?" Pfannee prodded.

"Erm... very." Glinda stumbled over her platitudes. "It's lovely," she added, completely bewildered.

"It's hideous," Elphie judged, quite effectively ending that conversation.

Glinda elbowed her in the ribs. Nanny decided it was time for them to go home.

Once back home and alone in the safety of their own room Glinda allowed some concern to show through.

"Elphie, dear, why are you getting so exercised over this?"

"Hanged if I know," Elphaba protested vehemently.

"Really, Elphaba, do calm down. You'll be finished in a few months, you'll be out of here and you won't have to agitate yourself any further."

Glinda was surprised Elphie did not look more pleased at the prospect. In fact, she didn't look pleased at all.

She turned away but Glinda pursued her across the room, wrapping her arms around and pressing herself in to Elphie's back, laying her head sideways. She smiled.

"I can hear your heart beating."

"Good." Elphie replied, still with just the slightest hint of grumpiness. "That's generally a good sign."

"It's fast," Glinda pondered.

Elphaba knew exactly why that might be. She turned in an effort to remove Glinda but just ended up with the girl hanging off her front instead, their arms round each others waists. "Are you a doctor now then? You are experienced in these things?"

Glinda chuckled. "I don't have the handwriting for it, too neat. Besides you're the one doing the sciences. Or you get your PhD, it's the same title. You could, you know."

This was an uncomfortable discussion, again. Elphie tried to brush it off. "If you say so, my love." Then she shuddered to a halt and the little skip in Glinda's heart noticed the same thing.

"I like that," Glinda said quietly. She looked up at Elphie with a gentle gaze.

"You do?"

"Mm. You know I love you." Glinda was trying very hard to control herself, not to moisten her lips as she looked in to Elphie's eyes.

"Yes." Elphie was distracted. "I know. And I you."

"I know. You're my best friend." She didn't know why she'd added that. She'd panicked.

"Yes," Elphie said again, sounding not quite right, like she needed to cough or blow her nose or something.

They just stood there. It was far from the whole truth. But they both seemed to know that as well.


	6. Chapter 6

**In which Elphaba gets a bicycle**

Glinda was sat on her bed quite contentedly reading and chewing on her pencil when Elphaba arrived. This took the form of Elphaba collapsing through the door and throwing her satchel down on her bed in a fit of melodrama that Glinda simply observed. After huffing in to the wash room for a few minutes and banging bottles she flounced back in before dropping on to the bed face first.

"Good day, darling?" Glinda enquired with rather too much civility.

There were some unearthly muffled noises before Elphaba obviously realised it was not working and rolled herself forlornly on to her back.

"The administration of this university are idiots."

"Have you been getting in to trouble with the faculty again?"

"No. Well, maybe. How Shiz is regarded as a top institution in Oz is beyond me, quite farcical."

Glinda had heard all this before, plenty of times. "You're just tired. It is late you know."

"It's all this interminable clomping around this vast campus. Why they needed to spread everything out across the whole city is beyond me."

"You wouldn't clomp so if you got yourself some nice shoes. Or let me get you some at least," that last part added in response to the askance look she got. "And I think you are one of Shiz University's more enthusiastic students. Most of us – yes, me included – barely know where our own college library is, let alone go trying to visit all the other ones."

The thought of libraries reminded Elphaba of her mission and she fished a book out of her bag and came to sit on Glinda's bed. "I need some sort of flying contraption. A balloon or some such."

Wriggling over to make some room – but not too much room – Glinda considered the issue. "I should get you a bicycle," she mused, not really intending to be speaking out loud. "You would look... exhilarating."

"Maybe a penny farthing," Elphaba continued for her. "I can be even more of a spectacle than I already am."

Glinda did not appreciate the self deprecation. "No, just a nice bicycle. Although..." and this thought took on an ulterior motive... "You might need to wear shorter skirts. Or you'll get... stuck."

Elphie did not seem thrilled about the short skirts. She looked up for a moment, at a corner of the ceiling contemplatively. "I could wear trousers."

"Elphaba! Are you mad?"

"It may very well be that I am."

Glinda was just about coming round from the scandalous and seductive vision of Elphaba in trousers. "Only in the best way," Glinda added affectionately.

"Besides, my dear, if I was on a bicycle where would you be? Holding on at the back? Or sat in the basket at the front?"

Glinda rolled her eyes and Elphie grinned, opening her book just in time to miss Glinda's blush.

The next day Glinda found herself waiting with Nanny and Nessa for Elphaba, naturally.

"Where in Oz is that girl?" Nanny grumbled, as was her wont.

"I think she was in the library," Glinda said idly. Even though she didn't know it was as good a guess as any. "Maybe she just lost track of time."

"No, she's not, we came through the library for that very reason," said Nessa.

"Oh. I don't know then."

"If she is not on campus so help me I will -"

Glinda knew Elphie's frequent flouting of the rules of chaperoneship were grating on Nanny, who to be fair felt under pressure from all the professional Amas. But Nanny had abruptly stopped and her face had dropped so with slight concern Glinda followed her gaze.

Coming towards them, in what could only be described as a flurry, was Elphaba sat atop a bicycle. She gave them a cheerful wave with only the smallest wobble and came to a halt with only the smallest skid in front of them where she stood straddling the machine, feet planted either side and her skirt crumpled up on the cross bar.

Grinning happily she looked wonderful, Glinda thought. She was also going to be in a lot of trouble.

"Elphaba Thropp!" Nanny exclaimed. "What in the name of sweet baby Ozma is that?"

"Oh Nanny, calm down," Elphaba admonished. "It is only a bicycle, I did not conjure it from the underworld."

Glinda appraised it critically and attempted to mollify Nanny by pointing out that at least it was not a penny farthing. Nanny was not sure how to take this, it would be as well to say at least it were not an elephant. Which, while she were on the subject, thank Lurline it were not an elephant.

"Oh Elphaba, what have you done now?" Nessa could have been referring to the bicycle or Nanny's upset.

Poor Elphaba was dismayed by this reaction. "Anyone would think I were trying to ride an Animal. It's a bicycle! Everyone rides one."

"All the _boys_ ride one," Nessa clarified.

"Pssh. Glinda, my pretty, come to my rescue! It was your idea after all."

Nanny and Nessa turned to Glinda in horror. "It was more of a joke?" she offered.

"One does not joke about such things in front of Elphaba," Nessa told her off. "She only gets ideas."

"You do look quite dashing," Glinda told Elphaba, who puffed out her chest with pride.

"Don't encourage her," Nessa told her off again.

There was a surreptitious exchange of guilty smiles behind Nessa's back who was busy placating Nanny.

Glinda sidled over to the offending machine and toyed with the handlebars, hand almost on top of Elphie's.

"What have you gone and done?" she murmured, unable to make eye contact.

"Come with me?"

"Absolutely not. Elphie, much as I love you, there is no way I am getting on that contraption."

Elphie pulled the closest face to a pout she was capable of.

"Are you quite well?" Glinda knew exactly what Elphaba was trying to do. "You look as though you need winding."

Scowling now but still with an imploring tone Elphaba tried again. "Come on, Glinda, live a little!"

"Ha! That's all I ever do with you. With my heart in my mouth and sweating beads of terror."

Elphaba smiled her most winning smile.

"If we end up in the canal..." Glinda was shooting for menacing.

"My sweet, if we end up in the canal you have my permission to dredge my remains and enact whatever terrible revenge you want on them."

Despite herself, Glinda was charmed. "Alright," she relented. "But take pity on me."

Letting out a quiet whoop of joy Elphaba pulled Glinda to the side of the bicycle and hoisted her abruptly in to sitting sideways on the cross bar.

"Hold on to your skirts," Elphaba warned ominously.

Glinda had a terrible feeling about this.

Elphaba launched the bicycle with some effort to get momentum. Glinda couldn't help but shriek, a shriek that was echoed by Nessa and Nanny as they turned to see the pair taking off.

"Elphaba Thropp! You hear your Nanny! Get back here right now!"

Elphaba couldn't turn around, she reasoned, she might lose control of her bicycle. So she just carried on her way, pedalling hard and trying to peer through Glinda's hair to see where she was going.

It was harder to ride with Glinda on board but Elphaba felt she soon got the hang of it. "Are you having fun?" she murmured in to Glinda's ear, which helpfully was just centimetres from her lips.

"Everyone's looking at us."

"They're just jealous."

That made Glinda laugh. She wanted to turn to Elphaba but was precariously balanced as she was. She waited until Elphie had negotiated some pot holes and then a cobbled section before leaning her head back on to Elphie's shoulder.

"Yes, I am. Having fun. This is much more civilised than I thought it would be."

"Good. So let's get off the roads and see what we can do with this hunk of junk."

"No, Elphie, really, I'm quite happy – uff!"

Elphaba bounced them up on to the pavement and through the gates of the park.

Thankfully the park was relatively empty of potential civilian casualties but that only gave Elphaba impetus to pedal furiously and build up a terrifying speed, or so it seemed to Glinda.

"Elphabaaaaaa!" Glinda wailed as they fairly flew down the hill. Towards the canal, naturally.

Behind her Elphaba was just laughing.

Closing her eyes Glinda quickly made her peace with the Unnamed God, Lurline and anyone else with any influence over the afterlife who might be listening. Bracing herself she waited for a splash that did not come. Instead at seemingly the very last moment Elphaba threw the Oz-be-damned bicycle sideways and they ended up on the path. Glinda opened an eye carefully as they swerved around a pedestrian.

With little grace Elphaba managed to slow the thing down and Glinda wasted no time in jumping off. The sudden change in centre of gravity and weight distribution caused Elphaba and the bicycle to keel sideways and land on the grass.

Glinda's hands flew to her mouth but Elphaba was still laughing gleefully as she crawled out from under the mess of metal bars and spokes. Unaccountably as she stood up the bicycle started to follow her – part of her skirt had become wrapped around a wheel axle and the two were well and truly attached.

This only made Elphaba laugh all the more as she gamely just ripped the skirt from the wheel, leaving her actual skirt with a huge and curious missing circle you could see a rip in her petticoat and then her stockings through.

"Ha ha!" Elphaba cackled triumphantly. She caught Glinda up in her arms and swung her around, which made the traumatic bicycle ride all worthwhile for Glinda.

When she was finally deposited back on the ground, giddy and dizzy for more than one reason, with her arms around Elphaba's neck and Elphie grinning down at her, Glinda did the only thing she could do. Impulsively she leant up and kissed Elphie on the lips. It was nothing more than a peck; a quick, friendly, happy kiss.

Elphie beamed.

"That's for not killing me."

"I'll have to try not killing you more often."

"Well first you need to not be killed by Nanny."


	7. Chapter 7

**In which Glinda does laundry**

Nanny was on a mission. She had Glinda sat neatly on the edge of Elphaba's bed, looking subdued, which was one half of her goal accomplished. Elphaba, though in attendance, would not put down her book.

"It just won't do girls."

Glinda blinked. Elphaba yawned.

"Now I know you are here getting an education and all but with the three of you to be running after, and with Nessa needing more running than most, you could at least put a broom about the place."

Following Nanny's hand about their room Glinda was contrite. "Nanny, you are right of course."

Nanny smiled warmly. "Ah, Glinda, you are a good girl and an example to this lazy thing here." She prodded at Elphaba, still sat reading.

"Glinda wouldn't know which end of a broom to use," was Elphaba's eventual contribution to the conversation.

"No more than you would." Glinda retorted.

Elphaba shrugged but gave Glinda a conspiratorial smile when she thought Nanny wasn't looking.

"Don't let her fool you, Miss Glinda. Elphaba knows exactly how to take care of a place. Goodness knows she and I had enough to do looking after her fool father, blessed Nessarose and that terrible little boy."

Nanny exited, tutting away.

Glinda turned to Elphaba, wanting to begin some rare exchange about her childhood. Elphaba seemed to sense this and drew her book closer.

"Did you really help Nanny with the housework?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes," was all the answer she got.

"So why the complete reluctance here?"

"It's not on my list of priorities. Or any list. Anyway, I can't do my own laundry but I do help Nanny with it."

Glinda hadn't thought about that.

"And I swept and dusted in here the other day."

"You absolute liar. I have never seen you do any such thing and the broom cupboard has had a cobweb over it for weeks."

"I just haven't done it for weeks, then. It's not like you can talk."

"Yes but I don't claim to do anything. Though I am perfectly willing to try." Glinda would once have near fainted at the thought, but it seemed quite a nice idea to her now.

"A wonderful advantage of being fashion-challenged is that it makes all this laundry malarkey much easier. No dry cleaning, strange chemicals, difficult instructions... you are going to be more of a challenge."

"You want me to do laundry? Now?"

In response Elphaba dragged her in to the wash room where their laundry baskets stood bulging waiting for Nanny to come and rescue them.

"Observe the simplicity," said Elphaba in a superior manner. "It's not like I even have to separate them in to colours or anything." She went to her wash basket and dumped item by item on the floor. "Dark, dark, dark, yours, dark..."

Glinda hurriedly swept up the turquoise brassiere wondering how on earth it had gotten in there and whether that had been her fault or Elphie's.

Once all her clothes were in a pile on the floor rather than a pile in the basket Elphaba went over to Glinda's basket. Every item they pulled out was some form of delicate wool, silks or requiring special care if not dry cleaning.

"They are a lot tamer than they used to be," Glinda mounted a weak little defence of herself. "And most are just left over from... before."

"Still, Nanny must love you," Elphaba observed wryly.

"If laundry involves simply dropping clothes off for dry cleaning with someone else and picking them up a few days later I think I can cope with that."

"I suppose that's all you ever thought it was."

"And I didn't even have to do the dropping off, the scullery maid picked it up from my room." Glinda skipped back in to the bedroom.

"How convenient for you," Elphaba muttered.

Later that evening as they sat together on Elphie's bed reading Glinda knocked her foot against Elphaba's.

"Come in," Elphaba joked and then looked up from her book. "Ah, Miss Glinda, how may I help you?"

Glinda gave her a light shove on account of the silliness. "I hope you didn't take our conversation earlier in the wrong way. It's not that I _like_ being waited on, just that it was how things were. It's what I'm used to."

"And what we are accustomed to is very persuasive in our view of the world."

Glinda took that as agreement. "Quite. But I'm not being flippant or taking things for granted."

"I know," Elphaba reassured with a little frown. "Your world has changed a lot being away from home... and with... Ama Clutch."

Nodding Glinda continued "And as much as I miss poor Ama Clutch I do like being more independent, as we have been."

That was definitely pushing one of Elphaba's buttons. "More independent! This place is nothing but a cage, a zoo for girls and their chaperones."

"Well it's more independence than I have ever known or expected to ever know."

"And what about the drawbacks of this independence? The laundry, for instance."

"I think I can get used to that. I think I could like it, in fact. It is a useful pursuit. I don't feel useful, particularly. Not like you."

An eyebrow was raised in a silent question.

"With Nessa and helping Nanny and I see now how you do more than you ever let on."

Before Elphaba the idea of doting on another person to the point of handling their dirty laundry or getting involved in any intimacies of their person – dusting their dead skin from surfaces, horrors! - had been abhorrent to Glinda. Whatever hazy visions she had entertained of future life had contained a husband, yes, but also many maids and the most domestic she ever anticipated being was setting the menu for dinner parties.

As with almost everything however, post-Elphaba the concept took on a different form. Last year Glinda had taken to making their beds in the morning and this year whichever one had been actually slept in. It felt nice... to smooth her hand over the ripples Elphie made in the sheets and – if she caught it early enough – the faint indentations in the mattress and lingering warmth of Elphie's body. She would fluff the pillows they laid on, brushing off the occasional long black hair and now blonde ones too.

It felt right. It felt intimate and personal and it was certainly not something a maid should be doing. It was Glinda's job.

A vision of herself doing laundry suddenly came to her. She would take a basket downstairs to the scullery, balancing it on her hip like the old ladies from the villages did. The crumpled garments would smell of Elphie but it wasn't dirt it was just ink spills and library dust and creases. She would soap and scrub and wring and peg Elphie's clothes out to dry, watch them hanging empty on the line, a sort of emblem of Elphaba flapping in front of her. Then she would iron them out, fresh and comfortable and neat ready for Elphie to inhabit again.

This produced such an achingly warm sensation within her that she retreated back to her own bed lest Elphie notice. And the next day, she carried out that very vision. It was a little more stressful than she had anticipated in her daydream and Nanny thought there was too much mooning. But it was achieved.

Elphaba tramped in through the door as Glinda was folding clothes, giving her a funny look. "What are you doing?"

"Laundry." Glinda replied happily, opening Elphie's drawer and settling in some blouses.

"Yes, I can see that. Let me rephrase that to: why?"

"It needed doing. I wanted to do it. I enjoyed it." Glinda listed the reasons in a happy, sing-song sort of a way.

Elphie grinned. Glinda suspected there was some surprise in there as well as gratitude.

"You," Elphie intoned, walking over to her and slipping an arm around her waist, "Are going to make someone an amazing wife one day."

Glinda smirked, already caught up in that happy little fantasy as she paired two of Elphie's horrible grey socks. "I will even darn your socks for you," she joked, sticking a finger through the toe, before she realised how that might have sounded.

Elphie's arm fell from her waist. How that obviously had sounded.

"I mean now, not, you know, in the future, because obviously... I mean..." she could barely continue as she looked up in to Elphaba's face, which was looking back down at her with the strangest expression. "Because obviously we... we..."

Glinda was sure it was going to happen. She was sure Elphie was going to kiss her. This whole confusion was as much Elphie's fault as it was hers, teasing her and being all suggestive. She carried on gazing at Elphie and swallowed, hard.

But Elphie moved, she slinked back away with a forced little laugh.

_Oh Elphaba!_ Glinda thought, frustrated not for the first time. _If you won't kiss me when I practically admit to fantasising about being your wife, when in Oz will you?_


	8. Chapter 8

**In which Glinda cannot be resisted**

Elphaba was sat on the floor leaning against the foot of the bed with papers spread all about her. A bit earlier Glinda had tiptoed across the floor avoiding all of these obstacles so as to light the lamp and lie on Elphaba's bed. She took a book with her, largely for show. In fact she spent most of the time peering over Elphaba's shoulder and offering helpful suggestions.

But Elphie was finding them less than helpful. She was building precarious piles of papers in an indiscernible pattern and it was taking a great deal of concentration, regrettably so much attention that she was barely paying any heed to a beautiful blonde hovering over her shoulder.

"Glinda, please... I just want to get this finished."

"Of course, I'm sorry, I won't distract you any more." Glinda opened her book to a random spot and began flicking through the pages loudly, clearly a lot faster than anyone would be capable of reading them.

Elphaba suppressed a little smile and finished doling out her papers. She picked up a batch and began sorting them in to order.

Watching this new development Glinda was not impressed. "Can I help you with that part?"

"No, thank you, my love. You just go back to your... page turning."

Glinda stuck out an unobserved tongue. She watched with growing dismay as, having organised one pile Elphaba turned to another, then another. This could go on all night.

"Can't you come and do that up here?"

"I don't want to be getting up and down." Even if you are up there, Elphaba considered.

Sulking for a moment Glinda went back to her book, properly this time, looking back up again only when Elphie had collected and sorted the last pile. To her even further dismay Elphaba then dragged a huge bound manuscript of some sort in to her own lap and started using it to annotate the huge raft of papers she had been working on.

"What now?" Glinda exclaimed.

"I'm just copying up some notes." Elphaba was greatly amused by how upset this was making her room mate. "Are you withering away from lack of attention?"

"Yes," Glinda replied grumpily.

"Well I am setting an example and resisting your wicked charms."

"Resisting, is it? You think you could resist _me _if I were to really try to distract you?"

A terrible and tantalising vision of some sort of strip tease flashed through Elphaba's mind. As that was incredibly unlikely she confidently said "Yes."

"Fine," Glinda said with a flounce that Elphaba knew was there even though she couldn't see it.

Elphaba smiled and drew up her knees, tilting the monstrously heavy book up in her lap, settling in for some undisturbed work-time.

Attempting to throw Elphaba off the scent Glinda herself remained studious for a good ten minutes, as long as she could bear. Feigning a sigh and a shuffle as she turned a page she dropped her right hand to dangle off the end of the bed, just touching Elphie's hair.

Squinting out of the corner of her eye Elphaba remained unmoving. As did the hand, just very gently resting against the side of her head.

Another five minutes and Glinda's hand moved up to the top of Elphaba's head and began very light and very short strokes through her hair.

Elphaba did an admirable job of ignoring them, even though she was intently aware of every touch. The fingers began to move separately, running along her scalp. She suppressed a shiver. She had been expecting the big guns to be wheeled out but Glinda was being very clever.

Glinda's tantalising fingers crept lower down the side of Elphaba's head and swirled just under her hairline along the side of her neck. A thumb sometimes seemingly accidentally caught a little stroke of ear or cheek. Elphaba's chest was heaving but other than that she felt she was maintaining her composure rather well.

There hadn't been the rustle of a page turning – from either book – for quite some time.

Inevitably the fingers moved further forward and began to run up and down Elphaba's throat. She was sure Glinda would notice her pulse racing and her frequent hard gulps of air. But then the game would be called off and Elphaba was desperate for it to continue so she steeled herself further.

In a monstrous new move Elphaba became aware of breath on her hair and in a few moments there was a kiss on the top of her head. Another few moments the kiss reappeared much closer to her ear.

Elphaba's eyes fluttered closed but thankfully her face was well out of view: it would have betrayed her immediately.

Glinda could see the tendons of Elphaba's hands tensing and swore that green knuckles were turning pale with gripping the book so hard. She allowed herself a small smile in to Elphaba's glorious hair and trailed her fingers even further down...

"Very well!" Elphaba shouted abruptly, leaping forward out of Glinda's grasp. "Yes, indeed, you have won. Congratulations."

"Did you ever doubt it?" Glinda chuckled, inordinately pleased with herself or so Elphaba thought.

Returning to kneel at the foot of the bed Elphaba closed the book Glinda was patently not reading. "And what will you claim as your prize?" She only realised, as the words came out, how close together they were and how charged she was still feeling.

With Elphaba looming dangerously in front of her Glinda felt overpowered. She could claim a... but she wouldn't, she wasn't going to. Instead she just smiled a hopefully innocent smile. "Just for you to come up here with me."

Elphaba complied and crawled up on to the bed as Glinda settled herself back at the correct end. She pulled Elphie close and burrowed in to her as she wrapped an arm round Elphie's shoulder. They lay together, Elphie on her back stretching out her spine, Glinda's bare feet tugging at Elphie's stockings. Glinda smiled and pressed a kiss in to the grey shirt beneath her.

There was silence for a while, warm and comforting. Glinda amused herself by gently tracing the shell of her captive's ear with a worshipful fingertip.

"Do you wish you were different?" She wasn't sure what had prompted it and expected evasion or a sarcastic response on the defensive.

"No," Elphaba answered plainly. "But you do. You wish I were different." Elphie wasn't sure either where that had response come from. A scared little part of her. Maybe one last ditch attempt at reassurance or avoidance.

"No!" Glinda was horrified by Elphaba's certainty of that. "No, I wouldn't change a thing about you. Elphie, I think you're perfect."

Though she could not see Elphie's face fully Glinda could tell by the slight upward movement of the ear and the feel of the muscles beneath her fingers that she was smiling.

Elphie's head started to turn towards her and Glinda moved her hand to guide and encourage, fingers ghosting across Elphie's cheek.

Elphaba wanted to say something – anything. There were so many things, but nothing seemed to fit, nothing seemed to sound right. It was all too wonderful and she didn't know what to do with herself. She didn't quite trust herself with that moment.

So she leant in and with a playful nudge against Glinda's nose she kissed her, gently, their lips barely touching until they turned in to shy smiles.


	9. Chapter 9

**In which Glinda and Elphaba discuss The Future**

Elphaba sat listlessly on Glinda's bed watching her do some sort of audit or inventory on her clothing. They were talking about the looming prospect of finals, graduation and the life thereafter.

"Crope and Tibbett," Glinda was saying, "are talking about a tour of the Vinkus with -"

"Everyone needs to focus on actually graduating first, _especially_ that pair of dolts."

"Pfannee and Shenshen are going to the Emerald City to -"

"I couldn't care less about the Emerald City or -"

"Or Pfannee and Shenshen, I know! That is why you'll see that I made no reference to you at all." Glinda paused in trawling through her wardrobe. "What has gotten in to you Elphaba? You're even more truculent than usual which is -"

"Saying something, I know."

"And even more interrupty than usual. Are you going to tell me what's eating at you?"

"Hunger. Hunger is eating at me."

"This isn't hunger-grumpy. You think I don't know by now? It's not tired-grumpy or bored-grumpy or shopping-grumpy or library-closed-grumpy. This is other-grumpy."

"Maybe I need my diaper changing." Elphaba was petulant.

"That's one for Nanny to deal with." Glinda was amused though and leant over to ruffle Elphaba's hair maternally, which turned in to a less than maternal gentle drift of a thumb down Elphaba's cheek before she tore herself away.

Momentarily silenced Elphaba sighed at the loss of contact, which made Glinda smile in to her frocks.

Sighing again with a different frustration Elphaba said "All these plans! They make my head hurt."

"But sweetheart you have plans, big plans. What about the Eminent Thropp?"

"Well he outlived his daughter and granddaughter; there's no reason to think he won't outlive me."

"Elphie, be serious..." But Glinda knew Elphaba was incapable of being serious when it came to her inheritance.

"I am being serious. He might. One can only hope. Then I won't have to make any decisions. It's too far away, anyway."

Sneaking a look behind her Glinda could see Elphaba almost sagging under the weight of it all and the sight of it scared her more than she realised. She wanted to comfort her but she also wanted to see where this was all going.

"The future? It is overwhelming, even for you. But no-one is talking about ten or even five years time, just about the summer."

Sounding relieved Elphaba eventually said "I supposed I would stay in Shiz, at least for another year until Nessa graduates."

Glinda nodded, that is what she had also assumed.

"I shall take an apartment by the canal and work in one of the libraries, inhaling dust all day." That thought animated Elphaba a great deal, though she pretended it were some sort of sacrifice. "But do not worry, my sweet, I shall brave the train to the North at least every other weekend. And you shall just have to come down on the others."

Glinda smiled at this confusingly random arrangement, readjusting a dress on its hanger. "Why? Where in Oz have you put me in this strange future-fantasy?"

The confusion was now Elphaba's, but it did not make her smile. "Erm... in Frottica?"

"You're sending me back home?" Glinda raised her eyebrows only partly in jokey outrage, though she was still facing away. "Well... thank you very much!"

Elphaba was nonplussed. "I thought you would... I don't know. I don't know what I thought."

"Obviously not," Glinda said firmly, fussing with her skirts. "Or you would have known how absurd the idea of you living alone with no-one to take care of you would be. You would be knee deep in dust, the curtains would never be opened, the bed never made and you would starve."

"I am quite capable of taking care of myself," Elphaba objected. She wanted to reach out, her hand twitched on the bedspread, but she couldn't. She didn't want to be objecting, either.

"It's not so much can't as won't," Glinda countered. "I'm sorry to ruin your ideal but I have no intention of leaving you here bashing around Shiz happily without me."

"I wouldn't be happy," Elphaba said quietly, too quietly.

"I beg your pardon?" Glinda still didn't turn, fighting every natural urge in her body.

"I said I wouldn't be happy. Without you."

Finally Glinda stopped her pointless rearrangements and smiled fondly over at Elphaba, sat forlornly on the bed. She moved over and wrapped her arms around Elphie's neck, pulling her head against her own chest and burying her face in dark hair. Elphie's arms hugged her waist. Glinda rocked her back and forth for a few moments then slid down on to the bed to sit next to her, two pairs of hands clasped firmly together.

"This is probably something we should discuss. Before we start having to make decisions and _you_ start going off at half cock." To emphasise Glinda raised their hands and bestowed Elphaba with a kiss on a green finger entwined with her own.

"You know me too well."

Glinda nodded proudly. And because she knew, she just waited.

"So, why we haven't talked about it... I didn't really _want_ to know. I didn't want to think about it. I have never ever been so happy as I have been here these few years. It took me completely by surprise, but it is true. I hate the idea of it all changing."

"Elphaba Thropp," Glinda whispered reverently, stroking her thumb over the hand that rested in her lap. "Afraid of change."

Elphaba nodded with an almost bashful smile, certainly somewhere along the lines of embarrassed. "Something like that. And I didn't mean to upset you with my predictions. When I do think about it it's almost like I prepare for the worst. Getting myself used to the idea of you going home, getting married, leaving me and all that."

Glinda thought her heart might just melt. They had never talked, seriously, about their futures; their singular shared future as deep down both of them knew they wanted it to be. And in that void had begun to grow fear and uncertainty, hidden beneath all the jocularity and teasing.

"Elphie," Glinda said in perfect seriousness, looking straight at her in the short distance between them, "There is no 'all that'. I am not going to be returning home. I am not going to be getting married. I am not going to be leaving you."

Glinda surprised herself with her strength of feeling and notched it down to a little softer. She brought up her hand to cradle Elphaba's face; the poor girl looked at a complete loss. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Elphaba nodded, though Glinda was still not convinced. She leant across and pressed a kiss to Elphie's cheek, cupping her jaw. Then another kiss, not quite on the cheek but not quite on the lips. And then, because she just couldn't bear it, quietly, gently, a little kiss on the lips.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily," she murmured, their faces still close. "In fact, you're not getting rid of me ever."

With a little smile, feeling she had imparted enough strength upon Elphie, Glinda started to move away. She didn't get very far before Elphaba's hand moved to the back of her neck to stop her.

Startled, and happily so, heart lurching, Glinda flicked her eyes back to Elphaba's. The darkness she saw was boiling, entrancing and half-lidded with a frown twitching in between eyebrows. Elphaba was looking at Glinda's lips. Glinda looked at Elphaba's lips, then closed her eyes.

Instantly they came together. There was nothing friendly or happy or reassuring about it. There was everything wanting and longing and loving as they kissed each other again and again. Elphaba's hands were buried in Glinda's hair, strong and insistent. Glinda hands were all over Elphaba's face, caressing her, finally. They held each other close and the kiss blew out like an explosion between them, scorching their room and turning the rest of the world to cinders.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: Everyone, thank you again for reading and reviewing and just generally being awesome. I'm so glad you have enjoyed the past few chapters. I wasn't going to say this until later, but, whilst graduation in chapter 14 is the official end of this story _there will be_ a sequel coming up about Glinda and Elphie's shenanigans post-university. They are just too much fun.

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><p><strong>In which Elphaba is up a tree<strong>

"There are books written about the perfect picnic, which is perfectly absurd," said Glinda as they arrived at their destination, a sunny field on the outskirts of Shiz, spotted with trees and inclining gently down towards the town.

"What would it say about where to pitch your picnic spot?" Nessa wondered. "Under the trees, maybe? The shade would be welcome." It was well in to spring now, warm and sunny with all the freshness of a new year.

Under the trees seemed as good a choice as any. Soon blankets and mats were spread and the whole charmed circle was happily arranged in more or less an actual circle; chatting, pouring drinks and beginning to delve in to the hampers for the food.

"There is already fly in my drink." Glinda was unimpressed.

"I am surprised there is only one." Elphaba wafted at a small cloud of flies formed in front of her face. "I can barely see for the things, I should have thought your drink would be swimming with them. Or, rather, they would be swimming in it."

Glinda giggled. "I think you might be attracting them all."

"Indeed, Elphie, do us a favour and go and sit on the other side of the field, taking these things with you so we can eat in peace." Avaric was trying his luck.

"Charming!" was all the retort he got, Elphaba being rather preoccupied. The more she talked the more likely one would end up in her mouth.

"Don't be cruel, Avaric," Glinda took up the defence. "Or I shall pour my juice over you and set _you_ in the other field as a wasp trap."

Elphaba chuckled at Glinda's defensiveness and laid a hand on the other girl's own, ostensibly to make sure she did not carry out her threat but mostly because she just wanted to. Glinda gazed up at her and rotated her hand, causing them to come together palm to palm, and intertwined their fingers. It was going to make eating her sandwiches a trifle difficult but staring in to those blue eyes Elphaba could happily have starved.

They were interrupted by Avaric still going on. "I don't understand why Elphaba must even eat. Do you not photosynthesise?"

"You know, that would be _so_ useful. But alas, no." Elphie's voice had taken on the high pitch and sing song quality dangerously close to Pfannee's, who shot her a glowering look, apparently able to hear even though she was set some distance away.

Boq now chimed in. "Elphie would not make a very effective plant. The first smattering of rain and the show would be over."

"I am so pleased I can provide you all with such entertainment," Elphaba grumped.

"Come now Elphie. You are a fascinating study."

"Yes but I've heard it all before you see. In fact I've heard little else for the last twenty years."

"Pssh," Nessa objected. "You attract more attention with your opinions than your colour."

"Do you think? Maybe being under so much scrutiny I decided I might as well have something interesting to say."

"Your psychology is not the point of this conversation, that would need a convention of considerably more size than we have assembled here -" Elphaba opened her mouth to dispute this somehow but Crope continued. "The question is your reaction to the elements."

"Now then Crope, perhaps you have managed to say something unique. I had only ever considered the one element. But if water burns and I am indifferent to earth... perhaps fire will have the opposite effect. Does anyone have a match?"

Tibbett appeared to actually be looking for one.

Glinda howled in protest. "There will be no Elphaban bonfires!"

"But in the name of science, Glinda!" Tibbett attempted to persuade.

After Elphaba restrained Glinda yet again the meal was eaten in good natured frivolity. Avaric cracked open some champagne and the group started to break apart in clusters, lounging around and moving to sit more in the sun.

Glinda only noticed quite how closely she and Elphie had been leaning against each other when Elphie moved.

"Where are you going?"

"To see if I can climb this tree..." But Elphie was walking around to the far side of the enormous trunk and Glinda hoped very much that she knew why. She followed.

Tucked out of sight Elphie was waiting for her, with a look on her face that gave Glinda butterflies in her stomach.

Elphaba reached out to Glinda. Just the sheer comprehension of the fact she was allowed – nay, encouraged – to reach out and touch Glinda whenever she wanted was enough to stun Elphaba in to silence for hours at a time. It didn't matter if it was only in their room or behind trees, it was still so new that each time was a revelation, each time was like the first time.

So she did reach out. She stroked Glinda's hair and touched her face, watching the fluttering eyelashes. Elphaba also watched her hand, curious, as it moved and strangely found herself thinking it beautiful, the beauty of the action rubbing off on it. As if the the smooth forearm, the bones and muscles rising and falling under the skin, the curve of the fingers did not belong to her. It was a strange sensation.

With a quick glance around the tree to the others, who were happily all very much preoccupied, Glinda pushed Elphie back against it and kissed her soundly.

When they broke apart Elphie was grinning. "Have I told you yet how much I love you? How I am just foolishly and hopelessly in love with you?"

As a matter of fact, she hadn't. Glinda kissed her again, clutching at her and pressing against her. Her hands ran along Elphie's shoulders and up her neck, then in to her hair. It would make a mess of the braid Glinda had worked on that morning but she would just do it again, it was no hardship.

Eventually pulling back Glinda saw a flash of desire that Elphie quickly replaced with that terrible mischievous look. "Now will you give me a leg up?"

"Elphie..." Glinda warned.

"No? I'll do it myself."

With a little jump and a shimmy Elphie was disappearing up in to the tree, accompanied by a yelp from Glinda.

"Elphaba!" Glinda hissed. "Get down! You'll hurt yourself."

Stood on a lower branch Elphie pointed down at Glinda and beckoned her up. Glinda pointed at Elphaba and then down at the ground, too concerned to be amused by this, though resisting the urge to stamp her foot. Elphie mouthed something that was quite possibly 'I love you' before making her way further up the tree. Glinda followed her progress, coming back round to the front towards the rest of the party.

Avaric joined Glinda in looking up in to the branches. "You see, she is part elf. I always knew it."

"Yes, it's all very funny. Now get down, you absolute goose." Glinda was firm but was not obeyed.

Crope and Tibbett appeared to think it were actually very funny and shortly they were also taking up residence in a neighbouring tree, Glinda having prevented them from going up Elphie's in case a branch should snap or some other calamity occur.

Glinda appealed to what she thought would be a voice of reason and agreement. "Really Nanny, she's like a naughty schoolgirl. Can't you do something?"

"Well, she never did go in for that at the time." Nanny mused, still clicking her knitting needles. Maybe that was where Elphaba got the habit of seemingly vacant responses from. "Let her to her fun, even if it is a decade overdue. I've never seen her so happy as this past year."

Glinda sat abruptly down on the picnic mat and thought she might actually cry with happiness over that statement. Instead Elphie waved down at her and she just waved back, unable to protest any further.

As the day wore on and the sun was began to set the air was subdued, respectful of the gorgeous evening unfolding for them. Nanny had fallen asleep propped up by a picnic basket and was snoring a little. Nessa seemed content laid on the rug watching the changing colours of the sky and clouds. Nearby Fiyero was laid on his stomach reading. Boq had wandered off to survey the hedgerows, Crope and Tibbett were still up a tree somewhere and Avaric was escorting the other girls on a little walk with Ama Clipp hot on his heels.

Elphaba had descended and returned to the earth to sit leaning against her tree. Glinda had somehow conspired to sit in between her legs, back entirely pressed against her and head resting on her shoulder. At some point Elphaba's arms had crept around Glinda's sides and she had clasped them together around Glinda's front, pinning her snugly in place. Glinda's own hands lay on bare green arms, fingertips moving slowly up and down.

"I want to stay like this forever." Elphaba barely even breathed the words and it was more that Glinda felt them than heard them. She could also feel Elphaba's heart reverberating within her, so close to her own that the two seemed to find the same rhythm. She only needed to turn her head a fraction before she was nuzzling in to Elphie's neck and could feel the furious pulse running there.

The feeling was perfection. They were so close she fancied them inseparable and there was nothing Glinda wanted more than that. "I love you," she whispered fiercely.

Elphaba shifted her a little and looked at her intently. Elphie's eyes made Glinda realise perhaps why they had never done this, why they had resisted one another for so long. It was a constant, all consuming and all encompassing love. It was all, everything. The absolute need to just possess Elphaba was so strong it was painful. Elphaba looked to be in more or less the same state.

"Glinda..." Elphaba's voice was hoarse with longing and thick with meaning.

Glinda understood though that if they were to kiss, there in that moment, they would never stop. It was a near perfect coalescence of situation and circumstance and feeling and desire and they were frustratingly and wonderfully trapped within it.

There was nothing they could do except enjoy it and trust there would be many others to come. Elphaba tightened her arms around Glinda in a bid to meld them together and Glinda pressed as many tiny kisses to Elphaba's neck as she thought the other girl could bear. They were in silent agreement that this was undeniably the way things should always be and that from now on it was exactly how things would be.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note: Two points to make after another quick thank you to everyone reading and reviewing. Firstly, there is a smidgen of nudity in this chapter. So be warned or pleased, whichever you prefer. Secondly, because Maguire based Shiz University on the British Oxbridge model and I myself am British that is how I have interpreted things. I should have mentioned that before so I hope I haven't caused too much confusion with it only being three years and the degrees and whatnot.

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><p><strong>In which Nessa is not stupid<strong>

Elphaba was on her way through the corridors when she was ambushed in a sneak attack: Glinda slipped out of an empty classroom and dragged her inside. A satchel was unceremoniously dumped in the doorway and Glinda pushed Elphie up against the nearest wall. Glinda kissed like she hadn't been kissed for a year despite Elphaba being fairly sure it had only been a few hours. Though she was more than happy to reciprocate.

That meant it took Elphaba quite a few minutes to realise the wall they were up against was in fact a window in to the corridor.

"This is not a particularly discreet place to be doing this," Elphaba pointed out.

"Don't care," Glinda said straight in to her mouth, so that Elphaba didn't care either.

A few minutes more and Elphaba recovered herself enough to point out "We're supposed to be going for lunch."

Desire overwhelmed Glinda. It was every kind of longing and it was breathtaking. "Don't care," she said again.

"After lunch we can go back to our room."

She cared a bit more about that. "I suppose," she grudgingly allowed. She released Elphie to get her bag and they set off to the buttery arm in arm.

"Just keep your foot out of my skirt this time," Elphaba warned her. "I almost spat my soup all over Nessa."

Glinda conceded that had been quite amusing but was on her best behaviour until lunch was eaten and she was stood with Elphie, Nessa and Nanny in the hall outside their rooms.

"What are you doing with your afternoon?" Nessa asked.

"Studying," Elphie said blankly.

Nessa did not seem surprised by the answer, it was a perfectly standard answer, but Glinda felt under a mild scrutiny as well as Nessa's eyes wandered over to her, stood mutely next to Elphaba holding on to her arm. She let go, but that only called attention to the holding.

"I'll see you at dinner," was all Nessa said and she followed Nanny in to her room.

Alone in the corridor, relaxed now, Glinda chastised Elphie with "If you study any more your brain will catch on fire."

"Well if you study some more you might be able to set it on fire for me and then you'll get your first class degree, Miss Glinda."

The idea seemed quite insane to Glinda so she ignored it.

"Besides," Elphaba continued. "I hoped we could study for a while and then I could seduce you over a pile of books."

"You don't need to seduce me. I am already _so very_ seduced," Glinda purred.

"Well in that case, what are we standing around out here for?" Elphaba very correctly questioned, manoeuvring Glinda back in to their room.

After a very brief period of studying in the run up to a very successful seduction Glinda slid out of Elphaba's arms and out of the bed.

"You're naked," Elphaba accurately observed.

"I believe that was your fault." Glinda padded round the room collecting stray items of clothing that seemed to have got themselves everywhere.

As she liberated her slip from the lamp on the desk she noted "It will also be your fault if we start a fire. I am certainly not explaining that to Morrible."

"Do I not get points for my excellent aim?"

"This was deliberate?"

"No, but that one was..." Elphaba pointed up to the central light fitting and Glinda's underwear.

Glinda stood looking up, amused but determined not to show it. "Well I can't reach up there. You'll have to get it."

Elphaba made no attempt to move.

"Now, Elphie. What if Nanny comes in?"

Elphaba appraised the naked girl stood in the middle of the room with an armful of clothes and herself naked in bed. "If Nanny came in now I don't think your knickers on the light are going to be the first thing she notices. We can probably get away with that part."

Glinda tsked at her and took their clothes through to the wash room.

"Besides," Elphaba called. "I can't get up. I'm naked."

Glinda stuck her head back in to the room to throw a dressing gown at Elphie. No excuses, clearly.

The next day Glinda was under Nessa's scrutiny again, waiting to meet Elphie and Nessa on their return from classes, from which they both appeared together.

"You just missed the most hilarious fall," Nessa told Glinda gleefully.

Elphaba was rubbing her elbow ruefully. "You wouldn't be saying that if it'd been you."

"Oh, sweetheart," Glinda said sympathetically, a mixture of humouring Elphie and genuine concern. "Not the bicycle again?"

"No," Nessa took the opportunity to answer. "Just the stairs."

"Clumsy thing," Glinda tutted.

Nessa watched Elphaba soak up this attention, a level of ministration no-one other than Glinda was allowed to give.

Her sister looked like a child except Nessa had no memories of Elphaba ever being this kind of a child; showing off some injury to a concerned party. Glinda was obsessed with learning about Elphie as a baby, her childhood, about their home life. But what she had stood in front of her was all there was to know. Nessa wondered if either of them realised that.

There was something that needed realising though, Nessa was still musing hours later at the pub.

They had consented to a short visit. Elphaba had not wanted to go at all, in that fidgety way she had she had been protesting about exams and getting agitated about anyone going in the first place. Nessa and Glinda had looked at one another and made that decision for her. But now, being here, Elphaba and Glinda had now been absent from the group for a good half hour.

"Really, where are they?" Nessa fussed.

"I can only imagine what they are up to," Avaric smirked, aided and abetted by a laugh from Tibbett. "And believe me I do imagine it."

Nessa scowled at him and turned away in a sulk. That meant she caught a view - behind the bar and past the store cupboards - of the pub's back door. Just as Elphaba and Glinda emerged.

They appeared to more or less fall sideways through it; on their feet but listing and seemingly surprised to be in the world. They weren't quite holding hands but sort of fiddling with each other, fingers slipping together or tugging at sleeves as if unable or unwilling to quite disentangle themselves.

Out of the corner of her eye Nessa tried to determine if this was in view of anyone else or whether the peculiar angles and twists of the building meant she was the only witness.

Nessa watched Glinda pull down at the front of Elphaba's crumpled blouse to smooth it out and continued to watch her sister's eyes roaming over Glinda's face, not so much searching as relishing. Elphaba's hand started to move towards Glinda who caught it in mid air, stopping it from reaching its destination. Though Nessa couldn't quite see Glinda appeared to kiss Elphaba's hand and they leant in to each other with a strange strained effect, as though they were trying by dint of sheer willpower to evaporate or whisk themselves away.

Glinda was now clutching at the front of Elphie's blouse and Elphie wrapped her arms tightly around the smaller girl, trapping her arms and whispering something that Nessa was almost glad she could not hear.

Looking anxiously back to their friends she was relieved to see no-one else had noticed the reappearance of the strangely engrossed pair. Whatever it was they had been doing in the first place, whatever it was Avaric so enjoyed imagining, this seemed so much more intimate.

Nessa thought she knew what this was. She had suspected that were it to ever come to this she would feel differently about it. But it was something else to see the look in their eyes as they gazed at one another. To be aware of the way they moved around each other, both in the physical realm and the constant emotional readjustments to each other's needs, positioning themselves where the other needed them to be just on instinct.

Since Nessa had been at Shiz she had known Elphaba had been completely at Glinda's mercy and Glinda had adored Elphaba in return. If there was any surprising element it was that it had taken this long for them to make any real progress on their very transparent love affair despite blatant displays of affection that only the two central participants seemed oblivious to. But apparently whatever had been overlooked had recently been discovered.

Having finally composed themselves the pair reappeared at the table. Nessa tried to look composed herself and wasn't sure she was managing as effectively. She turned to Nanny instead and did not participate in the interrogation.

"Where have you been?"

"Toilet," Elphie said at the same time as Glinda said "Fresh air." They looked at each other guiltily.

"Outdoor toilet," Elphaba joked in an attempt to play it down. Glinda was not aiding in the deception by gazing at her with undisguised adoration.

That night Nessa lay in the dark, trying her hardest not to listen.

"Oh Elphie!" There it was again, from next door.

Nessa had wished fervently for arms before. A multitude of reasons. She knew where she stood, or teetered, however. Having no arms was her lot, her test, her challenge. She rose to it as best she could, normally with Nanny or Elphaba's hand on her back. She accepted the will of the Unnamed God.

But this was just rubbing her face in it. What she wouldn't give for fingers to stick in her ears. Or to be able to pull a pillow over her head.

"Elphie!"

She considered waking Nanny to put the pillow on her head for her. Or kick on the wall.

"Ellllllphieeeeee!"

Instead she rolled over, smiling to herself. "Goodness," she said in the darkness. "Is there no end to my sister's talents?"

"The walls are not thick. _You_ are not subtle. _I_ am not stupid," was the message Nessa delivered to the blushing pair the next day.

Nessa got a small honeymoon period of relative peace and quiet within Glinda and Elphie's honeymoon period. It did not last. But she did not complain again.


	12. Chapter 12

**In which Glinda and Elphaba have The Talk**

Elphaba rubbed at her temples whilst Glinda paced around their room. "You know I find it hard to talk about things, my love."

"Nonsense, Elphaba, that is nonsense. I've never known anyone talk so much as you – about anything, everything and nothing."

Realising that were probably true, despite her own ideas to the contrary, Elphaba remained subdued.

"I'd really like us to actually talk about this."

Elphaba fidgeted. A large part of her didn't want to hear what Glinda might say. Talking broke things, turned the spotlight on to things and melted them away.

But a larger part of her was going to be brave, do this properly. "This is important to you?"

"Well, yes."

"You know how I love you. That I am utterly devoted to you. Forever and always. That's not going to change, whatever we call ourselves." Elphaba hoped this heartfelt little display might take the conversation in a different direction. Perhaps towards the bed...

"Elphie, darling, I know that. I don't want anything to change. That's not the question. I just – I can't quite explain why but it _is_ important to me."

Elphaba approached the worried looking blonde who was chewing adorably on her lip, clearly nervous about Elphaba's response. The response was to take Glinda's face in both her hands and look at her intensely.

"Then it is important to me," Elphaba said simply.

With a sigh of relief Glinda folded herself in to comforting arms. "Thank you, Elphie. Thank you."

They moved to Elphaba's bed where they lay together, Glinda playing with their entwined hands and staring at them intently while Elphaba just stared at Glinda, who eventually found the words to begin.

"It's just that two friends – or even just two people – who profess to love each other, like we do, in the way we do, and who kiss each other, like we do, in the way we do..."

Elphaba grinned wickedly at that thought and would have instigated some of that very kissing had she not been being good about this for Glinda.

"... and who touch each other and cannot keep their hands off each other in the way we... well, can't..."

Elphaba could only agree with that, there being no evidence to the contrary as they were wrapped together as close as could be, much as they were whenever possible.

"... those people, they are not friends. Well they are friends, rather they are more than friends. They are... involved. Romantically involved."

Glinda tipped a fearful head in Elphaba's direction to gauge how the word 'romantic' had been received.

"So..." Elphaba said ponderously, not appearing to have shattered in to glass at the concept. "I think what you are trying to say is that you would henceforth like to call our attachment one of romantic involvement. As in 'And may I introduce you to Glinda, my romantic involvement'."

Spilling over with happiness and adoration for the ridiculous green girl Glinda launched herself at her and kissed her to breathlessness.

"Girlfriend," Glinda panted. "You may refer to me as your girlfriend."

After they had properly consummated and celebrated their newly defined girlfriendhood they lay entangled in sheets, Glinda on her stomach kicking her legs happily in the air and Elphaba sinking in to the pillows whilst winding Glinda's hair around her fingers.

"What about the others?" Glinda marched her fingers across Elphaba's chest.

"What about them? We know Crope and Tibbett are at it whenever possible and frankly I have my doubts about Pfannee and Shenshen which is a horri-"

Although mildly intrigued that was not the question Glinda had been asking. "I mean about 'us' in relation to 'them'."

"In the matter of our romantic involvement?" Elphaba caught the fingers and brought them to her lips for kisses.

"Yes, as in us being _girlfriends_. What do you want to do?"

Elphaba looked back at her nonplussed. "Nothing?"

"Elphaba! What is the point of us calling ourselves girlfriends if we have no-one to call it to?"

"I thought that was just about us. Well, you, primarily. I didn't realise it was for everyone else's benefit."

"It is about us, sweetheart, it is. You know that's all I care about. But I also wanted something to say, when asked."

"Who's asking?"

"No-one, yet. But I'm not sure how long we can keep up this pretence. I'm not sure how long I _want_ to keep it up."

Kissing Glinda's palm Elphaba nodded. "I know."

"You do?"

"What kind of _girlfriend_ would I be if I didn't?"

As hoped she was rewarded with some more kisses for her appropriate use of the term and she wrapped an arm round Glinda in an attempt to pull her closer.

"Do you have a plan already laid out, my sweet? An advertisement in the Shiz Enquirer?"

"I said I wanted to drop the pretence. I didn't say I wanted a grand unveiling."

This distinction was interesting to Elphaba. Though for Glinda she felt she could find the stomach for announcements.

"As in, we should just be ourselves." Glinda continued.

"Ourselves minus the pretence? These selves?" Elphaba gestured to their naked selves.

Glinda ignored that. "Just... just don't hold back." As soon as she said it she regretted it, seeing the spark in Elphaba's eyes. "Wait, no, do hold back. Inasmuch as one should, in public. But little touches, kisses, just like any other couple in love."

Elphaba could scarce believe her luck. "I am allowed to kiss you in front of our friends?"

Glinda chuckled. "Yes, if you like."

"On the lips?" Elphaba clarified.

"Of course." Glinda looked at Elphie with amusement and curiosity. "I didn't think you would be so interested in public displays of affection."

"Hang the public, I don't care about them. It's just we spend so much time, so regrettably, out there..." she indicated the rest of the world beyond their room with a flick of the wrist, "that this increases my kissing quota exponentially."

Glinda laughed and added further kisses to Elphaba's eager tally.

"Oh, and," she thought it prudent to mention, in between kisses. "If Pfannee ever hears you say anything like that about her there will be absolute hell to pay."

Elphaba was interested – in a purely scientific way, she would have you know – to try this new experiment the next time they met with their wider circle of friends. Along with Nessarose and Nanny the pair entered the pub holding hands.

No-one batted an eyelash.

They sat as close together as possible. Elphaba's arms were around Glinda's waist. Glinda was almost in Elphaba's lap and leaning her head in to the crook of Elphaba's neck.

No-one blinked an eyelid.

They looked deeply in to one another's eyes, murmuring gently with contented little smiles. Elphaba planted a long kiss on top of Glinda's head in her hair. Glinda raised Elphie's hand to her lips and kissed it not once but several times.

No-one even glanced over.

"I think, my love," Elphaba pointed out once back in their room, "We may have been a lot less discreet than we had imagined."

The next time they committed themselves with a bit more gusto. Nessa rolled her eyes, knowing how unnecessary this all was, but did not intervene.

Glinda did actually sit in Elphaba's lap for a while. Elphaba raked her fingers up and down Glinda's arms. Glinda, blushing furiously, put her hand on Elphie's thigh. Elphie's head rolled back and her eyes closed as Glinda drew little circles on the back of her neck.

They were thoroughly and completely ignored.

Elphaba turned to Glinda. "Your plan? Not working."

Glinda could only agree that her plot for a stealthy unveiling had been ruined by the complete obliviousness of their social circle – helped in no small part, she was sure, by the immunity they had built up after seeing constant acts of affection between the two best friends.

It had been such a tantalisingly long road to this point and though Glinda had loved every minute of it she simultaneously had been desperate to get here. A place where she didn't have to hide anything from Elphaba, didn't have to resist the impulse to shower her with adoration, to love her freely and openly. And now they were here and gloriously in love and wanting to take the next step in their newly defined relationship and their friends were unwittingly impeding them.

If Glinda were to ask she knew that Elphaba would climb on to the table and declare their love not only to their friends but to the whole pub. Elphaba would climb the bell towers of every college of Shiz University and declare their love, if Glinda were to ask. The thought caused her to tremble. Glinda had never known it were possible to have another person feel so completely a part of you and she felt overcome by the sensation.

"Kiss me!" she exhaled.

Elphaba looked at her, startled. But this was not for show, whatever Glinda had been pondering had ignited something. Elphaba felt Glinda's hand on the back of her neck and did not hesitate to lean forward and deliver a slow, long kiss.

The table was silent. But as tables are generally quite taciturn creatures that was little to remark upon. More interestingly all the people sat around it fell silent themselves. Glinda and Elphaba both could only correctly assume that this was on their account.

"Ahem!" Crope leant over towards them. "You do know you're supposed to be pretending – to us at least – that you don't actually do that."

"Now then, Crope," said Elphaba languidly, breaking off from the kiss. "Because I am in _such_ a good mood I am _not_ going to detach your head from your shoulders."

"There's not going to be any more pretending," Glinda told everyone, feeling almost shy.

"No more pretending!" Avaric called in a toast, raising his glass. Everyone called out in reply and drank along and a few minutes later it was as if nothing had ever happened.


	13. Chapter 13

**In which Glinda and Elphaba go house hunting**

Elphaba sat outside the hall waiting for Glinda to emerge and watched as the doors swung open, unleashing a stream of final year sorcery students from the last of their exams. Glinda was there, smiling with her classmates and looking relieved. Elphaba just stood and watched her until her eye was caught and she received the biggest smile before Glinda slipped away from the group.

"All done?"

"All done!"

"Congratulations." Elphaba drew Glinda around the side of the hall for a furtive kiss. In front of their friends was one thing, potentially in front of Morrible was quite another.

That was it. Finals were done. All they could do now was wait. Much of that waiting would be carried out in leisure, in the relieved and exhausted company of their friends. Or so they assumed.

"I suppose you'll be looking for somewhere to live, then? Finding gainful employment?" Boq queried. "Now exams are over. No rest for the wicked, eh?"

"Not right now," Elphaba groaned. "This can wait at least until tomorrow."

"But you two are moving in together?"

"Yes..." Elphaba replied suspiciously, an eyebrow adding vague threat to her tone.

Nanny was shaking her head in some manner of dismay, which made Nessa laugh.

"I'm glad to see our nearest and dearest have such faith in us," sniffed Elphaba.

"We'll be just fine," Glinda asserted with a calming pat on Elphie's arm that did not achieve its intention. "I can do laundry now and everything."

Nanny failed to suppress an outright laugh.

Avaric seemed to be finding this whole situation unbearably amusing. "You think you can try and domesticate Elphaba Thropp?"

"Try?" Glinda cried disbelievingly. "I think I've already done a pretty good job."

"To domesticating the Thropp Third Descending!" Avaric cried, raising his glass.

The toast was completed with a cheer from everyone bar Elphaba, who was sporting an almighty scowl about Avaric's new toast-making hobby.

As the general merriment died down Elphie's hand closed over Glinda's. "I would have a word with you," she said and dragged her to the wash room but once the door locked on the stall there were no words for some time.

"What is all this in aid of?" Glinda queried.

"I just realised something."

"What is it?" Glinda was intrigued, smiling as she kissed her again.

"Relief." It had felt like it would be the end, to Elphaba, so many times. But really, it was just the beginning.

On the walk home, safely behind Nessa and Nanny they discussed one of Boq's topics with Elphaba returning to her early thoughts of working in one of the college libraries.

"I know it won't help much with paying the rent. But I should be quite beyond reproach. Even just an hour a day on my lunch would give me so much more progress on on Dr Dillamond's work -"

Elphaba was sounding almost apologetic and Glinda just had to stop it there.

"Shh, sweetheart. You don't have to explain this to me. I know. And I will do whatever you need. I may not be going home but I'm sure Daddy can help find me a good position here. I shall earn our bread and you can take the lowest paid most labour of love job in all of Oz for all I care."

"I never saw myself as a kept woman," Elphaba said as though she were exploring the concept and not finding it an unpleasant one.

"I can assure you that I certainly never imagined myself as a breadwinner. But, I suppose, that is what love does to you." Glinda found the concept curious but also very pleasant. It was also very pleasant when Elphaba kissed her for it.

And the next day they started on the other topic, the question of accommodation.

"We're looking to take an apartment. One bedroom. Near the university."

"Who isn't?" huffed the estate agent and went off to get some information for them.

Soon they were looking around the first apartment, a strange warren of corridors. It was dark and quite possibly damp.

"It's perfect," Elphaba said. "I think we're all done here."

"Not so fast." Glinda took the situation under control. "Please be sensible Elphie, this is the first place we've looked at."

"And it's perfect."

"You're only saying that because you don't want to look at any more. You don't want to live here for a year. Or more."

Admitting that were probably true Elphaba allowed herself to be dragged around two more entirely unsuitable apartments.

Recovering from the ordeal of the day in a cafe Elphaba considered that this could probably be made a bit more interesting if it really must be continued tomorrow. "We need a sign, for when we really like somewhere. And one for when we don't."

Glinda considered this. "So how about when you really like somewhere you say 'Glinda, I really like it here' and when you don't you can say 'Glinda, I don't like it here'."

"I was thinking something a little more covert," Elphaba said, disappointed.

The next day there were more apartments to be looked at but Elphaba had become newly distracted by the imminent arrival of Glinda's parents in advance of graduation and the dinner they were supposed to be sharing that evening.

"So, am I to be temporarily demoted from my position as your romantic involvement?"

Glinda looked at her thoughtfully. She couldn't quite work out what it was Elphie wanted her to say.

"Or shall I just kiss you in front of them?" Elphaba continued in a more teasing fashion.

"Maybe not that." Glinda still wasn't sure what to do, what Elphie wanted her to do. How this all hung together. She only knew how much she loved Elphaba. "You are nothing they want. But you're everything I need. Perhaps I underestimate them. Perhaps in all this they would just want me to be happy." She knew her relationship with her parents could be strained at times but she did genuinely believe her own happiness was of some importance to them.

Elphie kissed her. "_I_ just want you to be happy."

"I am. So very. I'm just a little emotional about finishing and... all that."

"Are you, my sweet?" That was with some concern. Glinda had been more enthusiastic about things than Elphaba but clearly not entirely so.

"Of course. This is where it all happened."

"And such a lot happened."

That made Glinda laugh which turned in to a little choke. Elphaba tried to hold her.

"Hang on," she said, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket. "My nose is running."

Elphaba looked at her. "Your eyes are running as well."

"Stop it. You'll make me worse."

"Will I need to be in full wet weather garb when we move out?"

"Quite possibly, yes."

Future tears were mitigated somewhat by the discovery that afternoon of the most perfect apartment. On the top floor of a three storey town house and complete with a roof garden they stood in the hallway with wide eyes.

"Elphie..." Glinda drew the name out with a tremulous voice.

"Glinda," Elphaba replied perfectly seriously, "I really like it here."

Glinda leaned up against her. "Me too."

"Are we done?"

"We're done."

Paperwork completed the new tenants walked happily back to Crage Hall, Glinda fairly bouncing, clutching a copy of the particulars to show her parents.

Elphaba pointed to the annotation regarding the one, singular, sole bedroom. "What are you going to tell your parents about this?"

"Oh bothers, I don't know, we'll say it's for economy's sake."

"I'll tell them I can't sleep without the sound of your sweet snoring."

"You will not!"

When it came down to it that night in the restaurant Glinda was a little less collected than she had hoped.

"Really, it's just for economy and convenience. We're used to being on top of each other all the..." Glinda realised this was not the most appropriate way to describe their relationship, "... time. In each others pockets, so to speak."

If either of her parents noticed they stayed admirably silent. For all I know, Glinda thought, they may well know we _are_ on top of each other all the time. Everyone else seems to.

Glancing over at Elphaba and seeing twinkling eyes told Glinda that at least one person had noticed and at least one person was highly amused. So she kicked the horrible thing under the table.

"The thing is, Elphie and I wanted to live together not just as friends..." Glinda was herself now highly amused in return to see the green drain from Elphaba's face.

With her parent's attention well and truly focussed and Elphaba looking rather unfocussed Glinda decided she would be as well to continue.

"We're in love," she said simply. Wasn't that all there was to it?

Elphaba was smiling now.

"Is this why we spent such a fortune on postage over the summer then?" her mother enquired.

Glinda wasn't sure whether that should be taken as approval or not. But then her mother smiled and her father squeezed her hand. And that _was_ all there was to it.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's note: Thank you so much everyone for the reviews and the reading. It is very muchly appreciated. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and hope you have too, you've all been amazing. I'm working on another more serious Gelphie fic first but then on to the sequel, "The Thrill, Basis Domesticated". And now for the final chapter...

* * *

><p><strong>In which Elphaba and Glinda may not quite graduate<strong>

"It's a rite of passage!" Boq exclaimed.

"As if the past three years have not been rite of passage enough!" Glinda exclaimed back.

"But it's... graduation."

"No, the act of finishing university successfully is graduating. This is a graduation ceremony."

Boq looked at her suspiciously. "You have been spending entirely too much time with Elphie. Your tone, your style and your opinions are becoming quite indistinguishable."

"I fail to see that as a negative," Glinda asserted.

"She's infecting you with her ill will for the place," seemed to be Boq's main objection.

"Well obviously you like it here, Master Post Graduate."

That actually was Elphie, appearing from behind and swooping down to kiss Glinda quickly, slipping her hand over Boq's eyes.

He brushed it away. "I have no intention of leering at you but I prefer not to be blind," he sniffed.

"If you're feeling jealous I'm sure Crope or Tibbett will be happy to assist," Elphie said sweetly.

Boq ignored her and asked "You're not really thinking of not graduating?"

"I will be graduating. I will not be attending the ceremony. Difference."

Glinda was given a pointed look by Boq. She just laughed. Elphie must have overheard as she was arriving. Mustn't she?

"What is the objection here?"

"Why should I sit in a stuffy room for hours with hundreds of people I do not know to be handed a piece of paper by Morrible – a blank bit of paper I might add – all the while dressed in some ridiculous gown?"

"And tell me how exactly that differs from your normal mode of dress?" Pfannee broke in at this juncture.

"The hat is a bit flatter than I like," Elphie shot back deadpan.

"All the better for heaving in the air at the end."

"I shall throw the damn thing at Morrible," Elphie sulked.

"Anyway," Glinda attempted to dampen things down. "It's not a definite, we are just entertaining it as an option."

"But your parents have come all the way from Frottica."

"To see me, I should hope, not just for graduation. They've been doing other things, like helping us pack."

"Have they ever," Elphaba groaned.

"You wouldn't know," Glinda pointed out curtly. "You keep running away. The fact exams have finished and we are a day from receiving our results means no-one believes you when you say you are going to study."

Boq interrupted the lover's tiff about to take place and turned to Elphaba. "But what about your father? Won't he want to see you?"

"Frex? Heavens no, he won't come. All this way? For me? He'll come next year for Nessa and have a good look about then."

"What is it then? Are you worried about your results? Well, not Elphaba, obviously..." He began to realise that might have sounded a little cruel regarding the one of the pair who was not Elphaba.

"Glinda has nothing to worry about," Elphaba protested as Boq knew she would.

Glinda herself felt she should have some input. "I shall be perfectly content with a lower second."

"She is being entirely too modest," Elphie interjected. "Well, you are. You know you are."

Well aware of Elphaba's wild – and unfounded, she felt – belief in her academic abilities Glinda was very uncomfortable with this conversation and luckily it evaporated. Or Elphaba evaporated it for her by starting up with some new complaint about politics or something, Glinda could never quite tell.

The time for discomfort or modesty was too quickly over as Elphaba and Glinda found themselves stood at the bursar's office receiving their envelopes. They moved away from the immediate scrum of other students and stood in a quiet corridor.

Glinda watched as Elphie ripped open her envelope unceremoniously, glanced in and snorted. She turned eagerly to Glinda. "Well?"

"What about you?"

"Never mind that." She'd got her first, she must have. It had almost been a mathematical impossibility for her not to.

Glinda looked at the envelope, imagining the result spinning inside it like a fruit machine. She just had to open it at the right moment...

"Glinda, please! I'm about to expire with anticipation."

Glinda closed her eyes and ripped it open. She held the letter in front of her face with her eyes still closed. And opened them.

"Oh Elphie..."

"It is, isn't it?" Glinda didn't think Elphie had ever been so nervously excited and it was all for her.

"It is. A first."

Elphaba made the closest noise to a squeal she had ever made and lifted Glinda off the floor with the force of her hug. "You clever girl," she said. "You beautiful, clever girl."

They were still holding on to each other in the hallway – on the basis that if Morrible decided to throw them out they were leaving anyway in a few days – when they were interrupted by Pfannee gliding past icily.

"Horrible Morrible wants to see you both in her office." She delivered her message and sailed onward, not interested in what the overly affectionate and – she assumed – overly achieving pair were going to do with this information.

They looked at each other.

"Not on your life," Elphie said decisively. "We're not doing that again."

Glinda smiled. "Don't worry. I'm a first class sorceress now. No more binding spells for us. Though maybe this time you'll let me kiss you afterwards."

"In our room," Elphie bargained. "You may kiss me in our room, not in the marketplace halfway to the Peach and Kidneys."

"You were so sweet, preserving my modesty."

"Preserving _my_ modesty..." Elphie harumphed. "What would people think of me? You were half fainted and as good as intoxicated."

"It didn't mean I wanted it any less," Glinda said quietly. "Or a hundred times before or since."

"And I was to know that how? I've heard a girl normally gets bought dinner before that sort of thing. That would have been a useful hint."

They hadn't talked about this. That night, easily one of the most wretched of Elphaba's life, when the others had all gone to the Philosophy Club and she had taken a drunk and distressed Glinda home. She had been so small, so sad and clung to Elphie so desperately. Elphie had put her to bed and had stalked about their room feeling like running away, the weight of it all crushing her. In the end though she had sat down on the edge of Glinda's bed and watched her sleep, unable to do anything else.

Also, Elphaba now considered, having spent so much time and energy trying not to kiss the girl. Why had she been trying so hard not to? She forgot now.

Nothing if not obedient with a side helping of curiosity they did end up in the Head's office.

"Ladies," Morrible began. "Please sit."

Elphaba didn't quite commit. Glinda took her hand firmly and sat them both down.

"First let me congratulate you on your superb results. I am of course very proud. I wanted to talk to you particularly about your plans for next year..."

Elphaba tensed.

"... And if you had considered our post graduate programmes?"

Now Elphaba laughed.

"We'll think about it," Glinda said, incredibly relieved herself.

Morrible nodded. "And we'll see you in a few days at graduation?"

Starting to make some sort of excuse Glinda was cut off by Elphie.

"Yes," she said, looking over at Glinda almost shyly. "We'll be there."

With days to spare they had to source some academic gowns to hire at break neck speed. Glinda wished they had decided weeks earlier to attend as Elphaba in those long dark robes, on top of the usual long dark robes, had quite a profound effect on her.

"I would have thought you would like this get up. It _is_ very you, Pfannee was actually right. You can go whooshing about even more effectively."

Elphaba tried it out and found she quite enjoyed it. "Wusch wusch," she said as she let herself in and out of the wash room a few times until the novelty wore off. Glinda didn't think the novelty of watching this little scene would ever wear off, frankly.

Nor did the effect on Glinda of those robes. Even after a few days of making Elphie wear them only to be thoroughly disrobed at every possible opportunity her appetite had still not been sated by the day itself.

Sneaking from the mingling finger buffet pre-ceremony Glinda settled for a housekeeping cupboard as the venue for the next unrobing.

"Bar the door with that broom..." she instructed, tearing at Elphaba in haste.

"We've got ages yet," Elphie reassured her, not at all unhappy about this decision to attend the ceremony now. She was even contemplating losing the deposit on the foolish clothing and just keeping it. For Glinda's sake, as she seemed to like it so much.

"I do so like you in these robes..."

"I have noticed..."

Either Glinda was not as hasty as she had imagined or the finger buffet had been very hasty as it did not seem long before a distant sound reached the cupboard. Names had started being called.

Glinda wrenched herself away.

"We've missed it," Elphie said blankly.

"Not yet. Shall we go?" Glinda looked at her helplessly.

"If we rock up together, covered in dust and panting... well, we'll never here the end of it, let's put it like that."

Another name was called.

Elphie considered their position. "I didn't get all rigged up to miss the blasted thing. And your mother will have me pickled if you miss it."

"Nessa's face will be a picture."

"She'll know we're not there by now, it'll be a picture anyway."

They looked at each other, opened the door, held hands... and ran, whooshing rather dramatically through the corridors.

They skidded in to the hall, barrelling through the double doors still holding hands, before meekly advancing on the podium and receiving their blank bits of paper from Morrible in tandem. They joined the rest of the crowd of fresh graduates for the speeches.

"Today is the first day of the rest of your lives..." Morrible was droning in an address more about her own virtues than the achievements of her students.

Elphaba looked at Glinda and felt rather as though it were.

At the end Elphaba did aim her hat at Morrible. It missed, for which Glinda was very grateful because if the ridiculous girl had been dragged away for chastisement she would not have been able to kiss her thoroughly.

Which she did. In a storm of cheers and the raining of too-flat hats she gathered Elphaba up as best she could and kissed her with all the force of the kisses that never happened and all the ones that were yet to come.


End file.
